Forever Friends
by myshadowspirit
Summary: Once a powerful team, the Digidesten are now divided. If pulled together will they become a team once again, or will a stupid fight prolong it till it's too late? Rated T incase I feel like doing something
1. Chapter 1 The Broken Circle

AN: Oh boy. Starting something new. Why? Because I really hate the ending to didgimon of the second sesone. That's why! I realize that at the end of the second sesone they're supposed to be liveing with their digimon . . .opps. Well they're not there. They went back to the digital world. () This takes place . . .three? years later. Well Tai is 17 and you can do the math. Things get more apparent as it goes on. I hope you like it. If you don't oh well. I like it and that's all the concerns me.

--girl who can't find her cap write now

Chapter 1

The Broken Circle

True Friends Forever - Inspirational friendship poems 

Written with a pen

Sealed with a kiss

If you are my friend,

Please answer this:

Are we friends or are we not?

You told me once, but I forgot.

So tell me now and tell me true,

So I can say, I am here for you.

Of all the friends I've ever met,

You're the one I won't forget.

And if I die before you do,

I'll go to Heaven

And wait for you.

--unknown

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_She was surrounded by darkness. She couldn't remember where she was or what time it was, but she was vaguely aware that she was with someone before. That someone was no longer there, though. She had to find her._

_All around her pairs of red glowing eyes slowly appeared. A chill of fear clutched at her heart and she knew she should leave. Right now. But something told her to stay._

"_Help . . . us."_

"_Yes, help . . . us."_

"_Help you?" She strained her eyes but couldn't see who was there._

"_Yes . . . only you can help us . . ."_

"_But what can I do?" She felt a stab of annoyance. "I'm just a girl."_

"_You are Queen, Kari . . . only you can save us."_

"_Yes, . . . come back to us . . ."_

"_Come back . . ."_

_Kari felt something cold on her arms._

"_Your King is waiting . . ."_

"_Let go of me!" she screamed. She tried to break their grip but they were stronger then she realized. She screamed again._

Kari shot up into a sitting position on her bed. Her alarm was going off and the sun was peeking though the curtains. She heaved a sigh and laid back down. She frowned at the annoying beeping coming from her alarm clock. She's not looking to another day at her junior high school. If Mitchell Stevens asked her to go out with him one time, she was going to . . . Wait! She should be at the High school now right? But . . . that wasn't right . . .

Since it takes three minutes for a person to be fully coherent after they woke up, it took her a while to realize she didn't have school and that it was the first week of summer vacation. She must have forgotten to turn it off. She stretched out her arm to hit the off button, but the beeping continued. Kari rolled over on her side to look at the stupid clock when she realized the beeping wasn't coming from the clock. Something behind it was flashing and causing the noise.

Reaching for it, she discovered it was her digivice. She picked up and brought it close to look at it, but the sound and light faded away.

_I have to tell Tai,_ she thought. She would have to wait until he got up, though.

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"Kari, I'm going to the Health Food store! Are you sure you don't want to come with me? We could grab lunch together!"

"No thanks, Mom. Before you leave, do you know where Tai is?"

"I believe he's still sleeping. I'm going now, bye!"

"Bye." A wave of annoyance washed over her as she stomped down the hall toward her brother's room. Who sleeps 'till 12 o'clock in the afternoon! She had waited long enough to get his sorry hide out of bed. This was important.

She knocked on his door. "Tai!" There was no answer. She knocked harder "_Tai!_" Still no answer. "_TAI!"_ Silence. "Oh for the love of-" She opened his door. Tai, in nothing but his underwear, was face down on his bed, blankets lay forgotten on his floor, arm over the edge. "_Tai!_"

Kari said in a hasty whisper. He didn't move. Not wanting to touch him, she looked around the room for something to throw at him. She found a sneaker. "Tai, I'm warning you, if you don't wake up, I will throw this shoe at you." Nothing. With a frown she chucked the shoe at him.

Tai shot up. "Kari! For God's sake!" He picked up the blankets and tried to cover himself. "Knock before you come in here! I'm in my freakin boxers!"

Kari rolled her eyes. It wasn't like he didn't walk around the apartment in his boxers already! "I did knock. Like three times!"

He pulled the blanket over his head and moaned. "Why do you wake me so early!"

"It's _12_ o'clock in the _afternoon!_"

"Sorry we can't all be bright and cheery like you early in morning," he said sarcastically.

Kari sighed. "Listen. I need to talk to you."

"That's what parents are for," Tai mumbled into his pillow.

"My digivice was glowing." That got Tai's attention. He sat up and stared at her.

"Are you sure?"

"I think so. I had this weird dream, and I was still half asleep when it happened."

"Well, _mine _didn't go off."

"How do you know?"

"I would have heard it!" Tai said, still cranky from being woken.

"Tai, all the screaming in the world didn't wake you, how would you have heard it?"

Tai muttered something that she didn't catch.

"Well did you have a strange dream like I did? Like someone calling for help?"

Tai thought about it for a second. "Dream . . . dream . . ." He snapped his fingers "Yes! You were in it! . . . And there was this ice cream truck . . . I was driving it. Oh man, then I crashed into a building and got my licence taken away!"

Kari sighed heavily. "Seriously, Tai."

"No. You know what? I think you just miss Gatomon too much and it's causing you to have strange dreams."

"But what about my digivice?"

"You said you were half asleep. You probably just imagined it."

"How do you know this isn't something serious?"

Tai put his hands behind his head. "Because I'm your big brother, I know everything."

Kari decided to let it go for now. "Well since you 'know everything' then I don't need to tell you that Mom went to the Health Food store and you know how long it takes her when she's in there, Dad's gone out to see the game and probably be gone all day, and I'm just about to leave myself so-"

"Wait, where are you going?"

"Out."

"Out where?"

"Out, out. Don't worry, Tai I'll bring my cell phone." She left his room and went down the hall, Tai following her.

"But _where_ are you going?"

"I don't know when I'll be back so you'll have the apartment to yourself . . . again. Unless you invite some friends over, which I highly recommend because I think the lack of social life is getting to your nonexistent brain."

Tai glared at her for a second. "Just go already! Wait, where are you going?"

Kari opened the door to leave. "By, Tai!" Then shut the door behind her.

"_Kari_!"

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Kari just had to talk to someone. Someone who would actually _listen _to her. So far the first week of summer felt very lonely. She unexpectedly found herself in front of the Takaishi residence. She rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer it.

The door opened to reveal a boy her age, his blond hair disheveled, his T-shirt half tucked into his pants and half not. His face was a little red and he was rubbing his eyes. Kari could see the TV on behind him and she guessed he must have fallen asleep on the couch.

"Hello?" he said in a groggy voice.

"Hey, TK!" she said brightly.

"Kari!" Realizing who it was he combed his fingers in his hair in a vain attempt to make it look decent. "What're you doing here?"

Kari shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Just visiting, I guess. Are you busy?"

"N-no."

They stood there for a bit, not saying anything.

"Can . . . I come in, or do you want to go somewhere?"

"TK, who's at the door?" called a woman's voice.

"Um, let's go somewhere." TK said quickly. He wanted to avoid all possible embarrassing conversations with his mother. "I'm going out!" he called to her before closing the door. He grabbed Kari's hand and hurriedly proceeded to leave the building.

"Um, TK?"

He stopped and turned around. "Yeah?"

"You do know you're not wearing any shoes, right?"

He looked down at his bare feet and briefly played with the idea to not waste the energy and just go shoeless. He sighed. "Yeah, I guess I kinda need those."

Kari shrugged. "Maybe," she said with a smile.

"Ok. I'll be right back with sneakers and probably a curfew."

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"So you told Tai about your digivice?"

"Yeah," Kari was sitting sideways on a bench at the Park, leaning up against the armrest and feeding bread to the birds. "But he thinks I was just imagining it. I guess I could've been. I've had weird dreams like that before and I _was _disoriented when I woke up." Her knees hugged to her chest, she peered over them to look at TK who was sitting casually on the other side of the bench, ankles crossed and staring up at the sky. "Did your digivice go off?" she asked.

"Not that I know of, but I wasn't awake at seven o'clock in the morning and I don't remember having any strange dreams."

"Maybe Tai was right . . ." Kari frowned. "Which is scary. Tai is never right."

TK smiled. "How is Tai? I haven't seen him in ages."

Kari sighed. "He's been practicing soccer nonstop. He wants to get a scholarship with it. I'm little worried because if he doesn't get it then he'll have to pay for college, which means he'll have to keep his job, which means he has to stop being late. Of course he doesn't care. He's so confident that he'll get it." She shrugged. "He _is_ getting better. How's Matt?"

TK gave a humorless laugh. "Well," he sighed. "He want's to go professional on his band and travel instead of going to college."

Kari raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. I can tell Dad's not happy with it, but he doesn't know what to do about it and Mom doesn't even know yet. Matt made me promise under penalty of death not to tell her."

"She's going to find out eventually."

"I know! That's what I said! And when she does find out, Matt's gonna think it's _me_ that told her because it's not like our parents talk to each other, though they do, because Dad's gonna tell her, I know it." He sighed. "I haven't seen him in a long time, too."

"Your dad?"

"No, Matt actually. He's always has a gig or something. Then when he is home Sora's there and I just feel . . . awkward. You know?"

"Yeah." Kari turned her gaze to the sky. "It's too bad really. The three of them used to be the best of friends. Now . . ." She waved her hands vaguely.

"We're all kinda like that now, Kari"

"What do you mean?"

"Well look at it. Mimi's in America, Joe is off in college studying to be a doctor, Izzy's in that computer thing that I don't really know what it's about, Tai's not talking to Matt or Sora, Cody's only just starting Junior High after we've graduated, Yoli and Ken are like . . . always together by themselves, and you and Davis-"

"TK, Davis is _not_ my boyfriend. I thought you knew that already!"

"Yeah, but-"

"Is that why you never come to sit by us during lunch anymore?"

"Well, I sort of thought you two were together and, you know, three's a crowd."

"What _ever_ gave you that idea?"

TK got really quiet. "Maybe it was him kissing you at that dance last year."

Kari face turned red in a very not-Kari way. "You saw that?"

TK shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh TK, no. No, no, no, no, no. Davis . . . He's was being a real jerk that night. Afterwards I hit him so hard that he was afraid to come near me for days . . . Oh God, no."

TK smiled. "It's ok. You just might want to tell Davis that. He still likes you, you know."

Kari sighed. She _did _feel guilty though. She didn't really try to hang out with T.K much anymore. Even if it wasn't her fault that TK didn't sit with her, she could've called him . . . or something.

"What if we got everyone back together this summer?" TK asked suddenly.

"TK, how would we do that?"

"I'm sure Mimi could come. Her parents let her do anything. Joe has some vacation time coming up. We could all go to that camp we used to go. You know, the one by the lake? I'll be just the 12 of us."

Kari thought about. It would be nice to have everybody back together. She _did _miss them, but . . . "TK I'm not sure that's a good idea. Tai, Matt, and Sora, together, for a whole summer, in the middle of nowhere, without parental supervision! They'll kill each other!"

"Come on, the have to be over that stupid little fight by now."

"Then why aren't they talking to each other?" Kari asked flatly.

"Yeah, you're right. They'll kill each other."

Silence.

"But you can't get them to ever forgive each other if you let them not talk to each other. They might just need a little push." TK had an evil smile on his face.

"But," Kari added. "Tai's not going to want a 'little push', and neither is Matt. They're not going to want to come."

"Sora will, and Matt will do whatever Sora does."

"But that still leaves Tai."

TK put his chin in his hand. "Can't you just . . . I don't know, _make_ him go?"

Kari laughed. "Yeah right!" Then an idea lit up her face. "But my parents can!" All of a sudden Kari's cell phone rang. She picked it up, already knowing who it is. "Hello?"

"Kari, where are you!" Tai demanded angrily. She was surprised it had taken him this long to call.

"On a bench," she said vaguely. She could hear him sigh in frustration.

"Listen, Davis has been calling nonstop and been asking if you're back yet. He's driving me insane, so call him or something."

"Sure."

"And don't talk to strangers."

"Bye Tai."

"And I really wish you would tell me where you are."

"_Bye_ Tai." She hit the off button. "I better go before Tai flips and calls the police or something."

"Ok . . . bye then."

"I'll tell Tai about the camp thing, and I can email Mimi, Davis, Yoli and Ken. Can you get the rest?"

"Yeah, sure."

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Tai stared dully at his bowl of cheerio's, waiting for . . . something to happen. Kari to call, someone to come home, the moon to fall down, anything. He was getting sick of cheerio's. They were so . . . cheerioy. Maybe he should go back to sleep.

Someone unlocked the door, and his mom came in with a bunch of groceries. "I'm home! Hi Tai! Where's Kari?"

"On a bench." He let the little O's fall off his spoon and back into the bowl.

"Oh . . . ok. What are you doing today?"

Tai slowly moved his head so he could stare balefully at his mother. "Nothing."

"Why don't you invite some friends over?"

"'Cause."

"You haven't done anything all summer!"

"It's only been a week, Mom."

"Still, what about that Izzy kid? I liked him. He's such a nice boy."

"_Mom_," was all he said in an annoyed voice. He put down his bowl of unfinished cheerio's on the floor for the cat to eat and migrated to the couch and flipped on the T.V.

The front door slammed open and Kari rushed in. "Tai, I need to ask you . . . a favor."

Tai grunted, but didn't leave his gaze at the TV screen.

"You know that camp by the lake that we use to go to?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Um, my friends and I were thinking of going up there for a month or two and we were hoping you could . . . maybe drive us there?"

"Kari, that's three hours away!"

"Wait Kari," her mother cut in from the kitchen. "Is there any adult's coming?"

"Uh no. I guess I didn't think of that."

Tai sighed in relief. He didn't want to do anything this summer except sleep and soccer of course.

"I know!" Their mother exclaimed. "Tai can watch you guys! He's old enough and I'm sure he'll be really responsible."

"What? Mom! For a whole month?"

"Or two," Kari added quietly.

"Is there anything else you were doing this summer?" Mrs. Kamiya asked.

"No, but-"

"Then your going. A bit of fresh air will be good for you."

"But how will I practice soccer?"

"Don't Davis and Ken do soccer? You can play with them and you can bring a friend!" Mrs. Kamiya was getting excited at the thought of the kids gone for the summer.

Tai got up and stormed off to his room, banging the door hard.

_Well,_ Kari thought._ That went better then I thought it would._

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"_Sora, Sora,"_

There was a pause as Matt tried to think of something tat rhymed with Sora before continuing strumming on his base guitar.

"_Your name rhymes with Dora,_

_Dora the Explor'a_

_Soooooraaaa!"_

Sora was sitting on Matt's bed with her face in her hands. "Matt, stop. That's God awful,"

she said trying not to laugh.

"_It's a shame," _da da da da _"It's a shame," _da da da da _"that nothing seems to rhymes with your naaaaame!"_

Sora got up from his bed armed with a pillow. That was it. She was going to be force to kill him. It was the only way to rid the world of the horrible song.

_Wham!_

The motion all most caused the music stand to fall over, but Matt caught it. Though when his hands left the guitar, it hit thee ground with a loud sound that only guitars can make. "Sora!" Matt scolded with a fake scowl. "I poured my heart and soul into that song!"

"You just made it up as you went along!"

"In fact," Matt said ignoring Sora. "I think I'm going to play it on stage! In front of millions of people." He smiled at her.

"I thought you were going to show me the song you told me about last night on the phone."

"That piece of crap?"

"Why don't you want me to see it?" Sora asked as she began to search through his papers and folders. Knowing what she was looking for Matt pulled the piece of paper out before she could find it.

"It's not even done yet!"

"Oh come on, I don't care." She tried to make a grab for it but he stood up and held it above her head.

"You're just going to have to wait." Sora jumped up to try to grab it again but Matt jerked his hand back. The quick motion caused both of them to lose their balance and they both tumbled to the ground, knocking over the chair.

They wrestled around on the floor for a bit until Matt manage to stuff his arms between his back and the floor, Sora sitting on top of him trying to pull out his arms. She gave up with a sigh and straightened. "You're a jerk you know that?"

Matt smiled up at her. "You're just mad because nothing rhymes with your name."

With a frown, Sora leaned up close to his face. "Aura, bora, flora, fora, maura, mora, ora, torah, zora, angora, aurora, fedora,**-**"

"Ok, whatever!"

She leaned down and kissed him. He kissed her back.

Then the door opened. "Oh God! Sorry!" The door closed again.

"TK!" Matt pushed Sora off of him. "Wait come back!"

The door opened a crack and TK peered an eye in. "I am really sorry. I didn't want to interrupt . . . anything."

Both Sora and Matt blushed but Matt quickly recovered. "What are you doing here, TK?"

"Didn't Dad tell you I was coming over today?"

"He might have, I can't remember," Matt said trying to remember what happened yesterday.

"When you're not busy, I'd like to talk to you."

"Do you want me to leave?" asked Sora. "I can come back later."

"No. I want talk to you too." TK let himself in. "Kari and I wanted to invite you guys to come camping with us. We're trying to get the whole team back together for the whole summer."

"The whole team?" Sora repeated. "Wow. We haven't been all together in forever. That would be really nice."

Matt was silent.

"Yeah that's what Kari and I thought. We were going to the old camp by the lake."

"Just like old times, huh? Is everyone coming?"

"I don't know yet. I still need to ask Cody, Izzy and contact Joe. Kari's doing the rest."

"Matt, what's the matter? Oh." She covered her mouth with her hand. "Tai."

TK looked from Sora to Matt and back again. Each lost in their own thoughts.

"Ok," Sora said. "We can't stay like this forever. I really would like to see everybody again-"

"Everybody?"

"Yes, Matt everybody. And we can't get this little thing from stopping us. It's time we settled things with Tai."

Matt was looking away and gave a slash sigh slash grown type thing.

"Matt, please."

"Oh all right. But if he starts something I'm not promising anything."

"Then there's the problem of you being free for a while." TK added.

Matt thought for a moment. "I don't think the band is doing anything until August so I can stay till then."

"So that's it then? You guys are coming?" TK asked hopefully.

"Looks like it." Sora said with a smile.

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Mimi opened up her fuzzy pink laptop. She hoped someone emailed her. After her break up with Chris, she had given her email address to all the good-looking guys at school. She would have so many dates that Chris was just going to explode with jealousy. That would teach Chris. She giggled almost evilly to her self, _No one_ broke up with Mimi Tachikawa!

_You've got mail_

"YES!" She quickly looked over all her emails to see if any of them were from guys but to her dismay they were all from her girlfriends . . . except one. She quickly clicked on it before recognizing the address. "Joe?" She fell into her stuffed animal covered bed. Joe from Japan. None of the boys from school emailed her. She wailed.

Her father and mother came rushing into her room. "What is it Darling?" her father asked.

"Nobody loves me!"

"But what about Christopher, Honey?" asked her mother gently.

"He's dead to me!" She rolled onto her stomach so that her face was buried into her stuff animals.

"Well . . ." Her father tried to think of something to make his daughter feel better.

"Just leave me!" Mimi sobbed. "I need to get used to being alone. For when I'm old, that's what I'll be! Old and alone!"

"Mimi-"

"Leave!"

They left.

She wiped her big brown eyes and tuned back to the computer. What could _Joe_ possibly want to talk about? Probably about health problems.

_Mimi,_

_I got an email from Kari trying to get us all back together for the summer at the camp by the lake. I hope you'll be able to come. Make sure it's all right with your parents first. If it is, I can pick you up from the airport on my way there. Let me know all right? Don't forget to tell what plane, time, day etc. I'd have a hard time finding you. Pink hair or not. _

_-Joe _

Mimi's eyes started to water again. Seeing all her old friends from Japan again! That would be wonderful! "Mama! Papa!" Her parents rushed in a second time. "Oh Mama, Papa, look!" She held up her computer to them so they could read. "Can I go? Oh please! It will make me so happy!"

"I don't know," said her father. "Who are these people you are staying with?"

"My old friends, Papa! You know!" She thought a bit before running off their names. "Tai, Matt, Izzy, Joe, Sora, TK, Kari, Davis, Ken, Yoli, and Cody!"

"Most of those sounded like boys' names," her mother said with a frown.

"And how old are theses . . . friends?"

"Cody's only 12, but Joe's 18." Mimi answered not knowing which one was the one her parents wanted to here.

"I'm not liking this Joe character."

"Papa! You know Joe! He wouldn't hurt a fly! He's going to be a doctor. 'Course I don't think he'd be a doctor for flies. I wouldn't want to do that-"

"Which one was Joe?" asked her mother trying to remember Mimi's old friends.

"The dorky one with glasses."

"Oh, that one. Yes, darling I believe he's the reliable sort," she said to her husband.

"Oh, all right. You can go, but if you need to come back for any reason, just call us and we'll rush over there and bring you home."

"Oh thank you!" She hugged her parents.

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"Kari, it's TK."

"Hold on." Kari took the phone and made for her room. Tai was watching her suspiciously as she did so. He still hadn't forgiven her for dragging him to the camp. She closed the door and put the phone back to her ear. "Ok,"

"I got everyone to come. You said we could leave next week right?"

"Yeah."

"So can everyone come on your side?"

"Yeah."

"You got Tai to come?" TK asked excitedly.

"Uh . . . yeeeaaah?"

"What's the matter?"

Kari made a check to make sure Tai was listening at the other side of the door, then said. "He doesn't know who's coming."

"But how-"

"I asked him if he could drive me and my friends down there and my mom is making him stay to supervise us. He thinks he's just bringing me, Davis, Yoli, Ken and Cody. He has no idea that Matt and the others are coming at all. He's all ready mad right now when he finds out . . ."

"You are so dead."

"You're going with Matt, Sora and Izzy right?"

"Yeah."

"And Joe is picking up Mimi."

"Yep."

"So we're good to go, right?"

"Except for the whole Tai thing."

"Oh man. Maybe it won't be that bad."

"I'll pray for us. Twelve people in a six-room building. Things are going to get interesting."

Kari laughed. "I'm going to hide behind you so your going to have to protect me, all right?"

TK's voice got really quite. "Sure . . . I'll protect you."


	2. Chapter 2 Reunited

AN: OMG! Can you belive I uploaded another chapter so quickly! It usually takes me like . . . a month. This is just so fun to right! And I'm sorry if I put together any cupples you didn't like. I can't please all of you. It makes me sad. Well here we go!

Chapter 2

Reunited

Friends are friends forever together 'till the end.

You promised me that you would always be my friend.

One day something changed I'm not sure what it was.

I lost you on that day and the reason was because

it was a late dark night and we had a stupid fight.

And for some reason, I don't know why, we couldn't make it right.

We went our separate ways.

This went on for days and days.

I made new friends and you made yours,

but that hole in my heart could not be filled for that hole was only yours.

Times got really tough,

my road of life was, oh, so rough.

I needed friends, not the kind you see from day to day,

but the kind that will always and forever stay.

Memories were all I had

and just the thought of them made me sad.

I cried every night wondering how to make it right.

I wish you could erase that day and that fight.

Would you please forgive me? I don't know where to start.

It hurts me so bad to have this hole in my heart!

I don't want our friendship to totally end.

I need you! You are my best friend!

So can we make a promise to stay together 'till the end?

A vow to each other to ALWAYS be BEST FRIENDS?

by: Marcie Reed

"Matt, you can't leave us! Were your dudes! We need ya, man!" Matt cradled the cell phone between his shoulder and ear as he turned the steering wheel of his car.

"I'll just be missing practice time-"

"With your _dudes_."

"And I can practice up at the camp."

"With _out _your dudes. And we still need ya."

"I appreciate that your gonna miss me, but you don't_ need _me for practice."

"But Man, you're the Chick Magnet! With out you, there's no chicks!"

"But you just practicing."

"We can't practice with out the chicks watching!"

"Oh yeah, who needs a base guitarist? Who needs a vocalist? We need a 'Chick Magnet'!" Matt rolled his eyes at Sora who was siting the passenger seat. She suppressed a giggle.

"You said it, Man." Jake said completely oblivious to Matt's sarcasm. "Course I don't know why you keep sticking with that Sora girl. You could have all the babes in the world and-"

"I think Sora would like to talk to you."

Sora took the phone from Matt. "Goodby Jake."

"Sora, baby-!" Click. She though the phone to the back seat.

"You shouldn't be talking on the phone while you're driving. You were making me nervous."

"I'm Super Multitask Man! I can do anything!"

They stopped at an apartment and went up to TK's floor. Stopping at the door, Matt hesitated ringing the doorbell. What would the chances of TK answering the door instead of his mom? Probably 50-50. He took a deep breath and pushed the button.

The door opened. It was his mother . . . His shoulders sagged in a feeling of inevitable doom.

"Matt! And hello Sora!"

"Hello Ms. Takaishi," Sora said politely.

"Hey, Mom." Matt said almost grudgingly.

"Come in, Come in!" She led the two of them to the couch in the living room. "Would any of you like tea?"

"No thank you,"responded Sora. "We can't stay too long. We still need to pick up Izzy."

"TK!" Ms. Takashi called down the hall. "Your brother is here!"

"Ok, I'm almost down packing!"

Ms. Takashi sat down on a chair across from the couch. "I told him to pack days ago. Left it to the last minute," she said softly.

They sat in a uncomfortable silence. Matt had his arms crossed and he wouldn't look at his mother in the face. _Come on TK, hurry up!_ Matt had never forgiven his mother for leaving his father . . . or him for that matter.

"So Matt," his mother said breaking the silence. "How's school?"

"Great," he muttered.

"Have you've been looking at any colleges?"

"Not yet," he answered in a tight voice.

TK came in dragging a large suite case. "I'm packed!" Ms. Takashi got up and went over to her youngest son.

"Are you sure you have everything? Toothbrush?"

"Got it."

"A sweatshirt, extra clothes, underwear?"

"Mom! I got everything!"

"Time to go." Matt got up and started for the door.

"Goodby TK." She kissed him on the forehead. "Have a good time ok? Matt, take care of you brother!"

He gave her a thumbs up before disappearing though the door.

"Goodby Ms. Takashi," Sora said with a slight bow before going after Matt.

TK put his arms around his mother. "By, Mom."

She smiled at him. "By, TK."

"TK, come on!" Matt shouted from down the hall. TK hurriedly grabbed his bag and ran to catch up.

At the car, TK stuffed his bag in the trunk with Sora and Matt's stuff. This including Matt's Guitar. "Um guys, are we going to have enough room for all are stuff?"

"Of course, why?" Matt swung easily into the driver's seat.

"'Cause Izzy isn't one to travel light."

"We're going camping! What could he bring?"

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"Oh my God! Tai, wake up!" This time it was a pillow that woke him. He squinted in the morning light, barely making out the image of Kari pacing in his room. "Did you pack? It's 9:45! People will be coming any minute. We're leaving at ten! You haven't eaten breakfast or have even gotten _dressed_ for that matter! Are you packed?" she repeated.

Tai rubbed his eyes. "Packed? Packed for what?" Kari's face drained of all color. Tai laughed. "I packed last night."

Kari glared at him, but relief was evident on her face. She began going though his drawers and pulling out clothes. "Here,change!" She through the clothes at Tai. "I'll make you breakfast!" She hurriedly left his room. That . . . was weird. Kari seemed nervous. Kari was never nervous. What could be the problem?

Kari made Tai toast. It was fast and easy. Then she began to load the Van as fast as she could. Once the rest of them gothere, she wanted to leave as soon as possible. She felt that in any second, Tai would find out about Matt and Sora coming and refuse to go. She was a terrible liar. Though she hadn't actually lied . . . she just hadn't told him the truth.

Tai lazily munched on his toast, her mother was busy vacuuming the livingroom, her father was at work.

_Queen Kari . . ._

"What?"

"I didn't say anything." Tai said eyeing her with confusion. She _was_ acting weird.

"I forgot to pack something!" She ran into her room and grabbed her digivice. She's was wondering if Tai packed his digivice too when the doorbell rang. She ran to go answer it before the sound of it was even finished processed into Tai's brain.

"Kari!"

"Uh, hi Davis." He opened his arms wide as if for a hug, but Kari pretended she didn't see. She went to her bag and unzipped it to put her digivice in.

"I brought you a flower." He held up a pink carnation.

"Thank you." Kari forced a smile and put the flower next to sink. She bent down to pick up her suitcase. "Do you have your stuff Davis?"

"Let me carry that for you!" He took the suitcase. "Yeah, I left it by the Van." He looked over at Tai. "Thanks for coming, Tai!"

Tai stared at him trying to figure out what was wrong with his expression. "Welcome."

"We're here!" An over exuberant Yoli popped into the room. "I'm so excited! Aren't you excited Ken?"

"Loads." Ken said in his quite voice and straight face. He walked in awkwardly, his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"Oh my God! Were did Cody go?" In a panic Yoli looked around her.

"I believe we lost him in your mad dash up the stairs," Ken said calmly

"Oh no! We've lost him? But I promised his mom that-"

"I'm right here, Yoli." Cody came down the hall breathing hard.

"Oh. Then we're ready then?"

They went outside to the Van and packed it. Mrs. Kamiya came out to say goodby. She took both Tai and Kari into her arms and hugged them hard. "Oh I'm gonna miss you guys so much!"

"You're the one making me go," Tai muttered, but Mrs. Kamiya just hugged him harder in answer. "Ok . . . can't breath . . ."

She let go. "You guys have fun. Don't get into too much trouble. Your Father said goodby before he left."

"Ok, by Mom."

"By Mom."

"You guys listen to Tai!" she called to the other kids.

"Yeah, get in the car!" Tai ordered, liking the idea of being in charge.

"Come on Ken, lets sit in the back!" Yoli took Ken's arm who had a slight blush and led him to the car.

Kari slid into the passenger seat and Davis slid in behind her. He leaned over to her. "So what have you been doing for the first few weeks of summer?"

"Nothing," Kari answered tersely.

"I been trying to call you, but I can't seem to catch you."

"Davis, please put un you seat belt."

"Ah, I see your worried about my safety." He sat back and click on his seatbelt. "See," he said pulling on it. "Nice and safe."

Kari stared at him flatly and gave an unimpressed "Uh-huh."

Once Cody had sat down next to Davis, Tai started the engine. "I hope somebody brought CDs, 'cause all I got up here is Mom's classical ans Dad's country."

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"Izzy's in room making sure he has anything. Would you like to come in?" asked Mrs. Izumi.

"Yes, thank you." Sora, Matt and TK walked though the door. They fond Izzy's door opened and Sora knocked on the side of the wall.

Izzy looked up from his stuff.

"We've come to kidnap you!" Sora said brightly.

Izzy smiled. "Hi, guys. I think I have everything."

"Wait, how much are you bringing?" asked Matt with a worried expression as he looked at the luggage.

"Well I have to bring my laptop because I still have work to do on my software project, and in order to complete my project I'm going to have to do a bit of research, which means I need the internet, and I assume that the camp doesn't have a wireless connection so I have to bring my satellite up link to-"

"Is it all gonna fit in the car?" Matt interrupted.

"My hypotheses suggest that the back seat is still free, then I can put my bag under my feet, laptop on my lap and backpack between TK and I."

Matt blinked, and made sure that made sense before heading back to the car. "Come on let's go!""Does Matt seem a bit uptight to you?" Izzy whispered to TK.

"I think he's just not looking forward to seeing Tia again."

"Oh. That. Good gracious, Tai still hasn't forgiven Matt?"

"Izzy, they haven't spoken to each other since."

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Joe was rudely pushed though the crowded airport. Mimi's plain should have been here by now but he couldn't find the gate she was suppose to come out of. It was Gate 18, and he was in the single digits. Suddenly he was in the 20s and he had to turn around. When he finally got to Gate 18 people were already coming out. What if he missed her? Or what if she was kidnaped! A young pretty 16 year old girl like her, she would be the kind. He was just about to call the police when a girl with pink hair called his name.

"Joe! Over here!" She waved and ran over to him.

Joe sighed in relief. Ok, now they just had to grab her stuff and get her in the car and they were home free.

"Joe!" Mimi suddenly flung her arms around him causing him to blush. "It's so good to see you!" She pulled away.

"Hi, Mimi," Joe responded somewhat sheepishly, rearranging his glasses.

"Come on let's look for my stuff!"

They walked to the baggage claim. Mimi hired three men to carry her luggage for her. Joe was relived that they would have help, but the pile of stuff just got bigger and bigger.

"That one's mine, and that one's mine, and that one!" She pointed to every pink bag that came out.

"Um, Mimi, how much did you bring!"

"Well I packed at least three outfits a day, one for the morning, one for the afternoon, one for the evening, and a few extras in case some get dirty. Then I have my hair dryers-"

"Hair dry_ers_? As in more then one?"

"Duh! What if one breaks?"

"Mimi, this stuff can't fit in my poor pathetic car! This stuff can't fit in your room in camp! You have _one_ closet."

"Don't worry Joe." She got an evil glint in her eye. "I'll make it fit."

"Oh dear."

"Come on, boys!" And they begin to carry their load to Joe's car.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The car ride was somewhat boring. Davis would try make conversation with Kari, who in return would give one word responses. Yoli and Ken would exchange a few words but other then that nobody really talked. Tai had the radio on so loud it was difficult to hear each other any way.

"Kari, why are you being this way?"

"What way, Davis?" Kari asked innocently.

"You know what way! I don't even know why I try! I should just let you and Blonde Boy make goo-goo eyes at each other and just kill myself!"

"Davis . . ." Kari trailed off. She turned around in her seat so she could face him. "One, his name is Takeru or TK. Not 'Blonde Boy'. Two, you and I, we're not together! Get that through your head! We're just friends! Good friends! Davis, I love you dearly, but in a friend way and I want to keep being friends. And three, TK and me are just friends too. Ok? We've known each other since we were eight."

Davis slouched down in his seat with his arms crossed, jutting his jar out and looking like a four year old who was in time out. "I like to see you tell TK that."

"What? What's that suppose to mean?"

"Guys! Shut up! I can't hear the radio and the volume is on maximum," Tai shouted over the noise.

They stopped and Tai turned off the radio. They were almost there and he didn't want to miss the turn. The road was deserted of any other cars so if he did, it would be easy for him to turn around, but still, it was a big car and he wasn't used to driving it.

"I'll just tell TK myself when we get to the camp." Davis muttered to himself. He had no intention in doing so. Saying it just made him feel better, and he had not intended for Kari to hear it either, but she did. Not only that, but Tai heard it too.

"TK's going to be at the camp too?"

Kari sighed heavily. This was not going to last much longer. "Um, yeah."

"Why didn't he get a ride with us? We still have room in the Van."

"'Cause he's coming with some other people," Kari said trying to choose her words wisely.

"What _other_ people."

"Izzy . . . and . . . .MattandSora."

The car screeched to a stop, sending everyone crashing hard against their seatbelts.

"Oh my God! Is everyone ok?" Kari asked everyone.

"Yeah, I think so." Yoli slowly readjusted herself.

Tai still had his eyes on the road, knuckles white from the grip he had on the steering wheel. Sora? He could handle Matt. Even if that meant he had to punch in Rock Star Pretty Boy's face in, but Sora? . . . He didn't feel anger toward her. It was . . . like painful sadness . . . And usually when he felt that way, he turned it into anger, but unlike Matt, he couldn't punch _her_ in the face . . .

"Um, you know we're sitting in the middle of the road?" Cody said nervously looking out the window. All they needed right now was a car to hit them.

Tai still hadn't moved a muscle.

"Tai?" Kari tried hesitantly.

"Dammit Kari! Why did you do this? _How could_ you do this?"

"It wasn't her idea!" Davis stated. Kari was impressed. Was Davis going to take the blame? "It was TK's!" Then she wasn't.

"I don't care who's idea it was!" He made a scream/growl and smashed the back of his head to the head rest, ramming his fist into the steering wheel. "Shit," Tai swore softly. He pulled back on the gearshift. "Stupid Sora," he muttered as he put the car in reverse. "Stupid _sister_, . . . missed the damn _turn_." The rest of them were quite till they got to the camp.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Are we there yet?" TK asked for the millionth time for just the sole purpose that it drove Matt nuts.

"TK, if you want me to knock you out, you just have to ask," Matt answered pleasantly.

TK grinned as they rolled to a stop at the camp.

"I think we're the first ones here," Sora said looking around for any other cars.

"Great. Let's unload the car."

Each room had only one outlet. Luckily for Izzy, he brought extension cords. He began working on his project as soon as he was un packed. TK went outside to wait for the others and Matt helped Sora load food into the fridge in the small kitchen.

Sora wasn't sure if she was glad that they were the first ones there or not. It meant that she didn't have to face Tai yet, but that was just prolonging theinevitable. Tai . . . She wondered how he was doing. She said some pretty nasty things to him last time she saw him. Well maybe he was over it. Maybe he got himself a girlfriend. Yeah, that's it. That's why he hadn't called in forever. He felt awkward about calling his ex-girlfriend and it was ok, because he had a new girlfriend. And now they could become friends again. Everything would be ok. Tai was ok.

"A van just pulled in," Matt said looking out the window.

A van? The Kamiya's van. Oh God, oh God. Why was she so nervous?

TK came in with a slam of the screen door. "Tai and the others are here."

"Yep," was all that Matt said.

TK headed down the hall. "Where are you going?" asked Sora.

"Hiding!" he called over his shoulder.

Great.

"Wait," TK popped his head back in the room. "Tai wasn't _supposed_ to know that others were coming, including the two of you. So . . . just to warn you." And then he was gone.

The door opened again. "Matt! Sora!"

"Hi, guys." Kari, Davis, Cody, Yoli and Ken came in. Sora didn't see Tai among them. They were all holding bags. Matt took some of them. "Wow, look how big you guys have gotten." Sora went over to help.

"Izzy's up stairs. The girls and Tai are going up there as well," Matt said as he helped bring bags up stairs.

"Where's TK? I thought I saw him run in here," asked Kari.

"Hiding," grunted Matt.

Kari could her Davis mutter "Figures," before disappearing down the downstair halls with Cody and Ken.

Sora followed the rest upstairs. "Where's Tai?"

"Still in the car," Kari answered.

"I think he's still trying to peel his hands from the steering wheel," Yoli said with a snicker.

"What happened?"

"Nothing!" Kari said quickly. "Want to share a room with me, Sora?"

"Uh, sure."

After saying a quick hi to Izzy, Kari and Yoli went to go see what TK and the others were doing and Matt and Sora went back to the kitchen, waiting for more of the older kids to get there.

That was when Tai slammed in.

Sora didn't realize how much she had missed him until she saw him. He was taller, a little more filled out, and he was frowning, but he was still Tai. Her heart ached. Tai's expression changed from anger to panicked surprise when he saw who was sitting at the kitchen table. "Sora?" It sounded pathetically desperate.

"Um, I have to go to the bathroom!" Sora got up and ran up the stairs.

Matt stared after her, shocked by the sudden abandonment.

Tai's attention went to Matt and his eyes narrowed. "Matt."

"Tai," Matt answered in the same way.

Suddenly the screen door was once again slammed open, and arms flung themselves around Tai's middle. "Tai! I missed you so much!"

"Um, Mimi?" Tai asked awkwardly, but Mimi didn't appear to hear.

"Oh is that Matt too!" She looked around Tai. Then she took Tai's hand and dragged him over to Matt so she could give them both a hug at the same time. "It's so wonderful to be back!"

Poor Joe was left to unload the car.


	3. Chapter 3 Day One

AN: What's this? Another chapter? And it's been, what? Three days? I am good. Something that is not good though is that I've been spelling Yolie with out the e so that's now changed in this chapter. ow . . . I think my fingers are starting to take their toll from typeing so much. . . .the pain . . .

--capless girl

**Chapter 3**

**Day one**

Stuck

I'm stuck between two

And don't know who to chose

Cause no matter who I pick

I know somehow I'll lose

You never win playing the game I play

Just get into situations and lose your way

With the awkward silence building you have nothing to say

With out knowing them well, that's the price you pay

Try to pick your moves carefully to last another day

But you know it should be HIM not THEY

This is why its pathetic to mess with two

Cause in the end you don't know what to do

You know you want one...

But who?

By Amy Jojo

After Mimi announced to the whole camp that she was here, the group migrated to the porch outside where there was more room. They chattered away as they tried to catch up with each other and eating ice cream. They were happy . . . well except maybe Tai. He was busy glaring a hole in Matt and Sora's heads, but every once in a while someone would say something and even Tai would flash a smile.

"Ok guys," Mimi said as she took a deep breath. "I have an announcement." She took another deep breath. "I'm . . . going single."

More then one eyebrow shot up to this. Mimi was never 'single'. There were times when she had more then one boyfriend and if she didn't have a boyfriend she would be at least dating.

"I have given up on dating. I am living a free life!"

"That won't last for long," Davis muttered.

"But what happened to Chris?" Yolie asked.

"Chris?" Mimi's eyes were dangerously close to tears and her lower lip started to tremble.

"Oh Mimi, I'm so sorry." Sora wrapped her arm around Mimi and she cried into her shoulder.

"Sora you're so kind! All of you guys are! What would I do with out you? I love you all!" She sat up a rubbed her eyes. "I want to do something for all of you. I know! I'll cook dinner!"

"It's only two o'clock," Izzy said quickly. "And we just ate ice cream." Nobody wanted Mimi to cook anything. She ate the weirdest combinations of food and nobody was brave enough to try it.

"Oh, then I'll just wait."

"Maybe she'll forget," Cody whispered to Davis.

"Wow, it's getting pretty hot. Does anyone want to go down to the lake?" Sora asked

"I'm going to look so pale in a swimsuit," Yolie sighed.

Mimi stared at Yolie in shock. "Oh my God! Yolie! You have to tan with me! I found this perfect way to get an even, natural tan, from my 'Seventeen' magazine!" She grabbed Yolie's hand and dragged her inside to get their bathing suits.

"I'll say that's a yes," Matt told Sora with a smile.

They started to file in to get their bathing suits when Davis stopped Tai. "Wanna do some practice?"

"Sure."

"How 'bout you, Ken?"

Ken looked away shyly. "I . . . don't know."

"That usually means yes." Davis told Tai. "Come on, the soccer balls are still in the Van!"

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Tai, Davis and Ken set up a goal, which were two big sticks they had found and stuck into the sand. Tai was in the goal. When Davis started to brag about how much better he had gotten, Tai laughed and wanted to see what he had.

"You don't believe me Tai? I've practiced so much that when I close my eyes all I see is soccer balls making goals!"

"Well, you couldn't have practiced all that much."

"How would you know?"

"You seem to have plenty of time to call Kari every waking minute."

"You're about to go down, man."

"Am I now?"

Davis kicked his ball with everything he had only to be caught easily by Tai.

"Oh! The pathetic Davis is foiled again by the invincible Tai! When will he ever learn!"

Davis kicked another ball while Tai was distracted. Tai caught that one too, but just barely.

"What now?"

"You know, that would've went in if your hair wasn't so big!"

"Look who's talking! Is that a porcupine on your head?"

"Hey, my hair has feelings too! And it looks loads better then yours!"

"Wanna say that to my face?"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah?

"Yeah!"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"YEAH?"

"YEAH!"

Ken looked from one boy to the other. The were obviously not really mad each other but enjoying . . . whatever they were doing. Ken never saw the point.

By this time the rest of the boys had come out. It seemed to take forever for girls to change. Matt had dragged TK into the lake and was now, what looked like drowning him. Izzy was sitting in a towel with his laptop, oblivious to rest of the world. Joe was to his left. Also, sitting on a towel with another one wrapped around him looking miserable. Cody was cross-legged and sitting at Izzy's right reading a book. Tai and Davis were still repeating the word "yeah" to each other. Ken sighed.

"Um . . . shouldn't we be doing . . . something else?"

"Yes, there's only one way to settle this argument!" Tai announced.

"And that is . . ." Davis asked.

"A race to the other side of the beach. Loser has to be goalie while the other two bombards him with soccer balls."

"Deal!"

"Go!" They dashed across the beach.

"But-" Ken started but they were already gone. He sighed. He didn't mind being goalie.

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Izzy was rudely awakened from his work by a shower of sand from Tai and Davis. "Ahhh! Guys! You're getting sand in my computer!" But they were already gone.

Cody smiled. "We _are_ at a beach, Izzy. Sand's everywhere."

Izzy looked around and found more large sticks. "Guys, I need your towels!"

"But-oh . . . ok." Joe reluctantly gave up his towel and looked around, paranoid. Izzy made a small tent with the sticks and towels and went inside.

"You guys can come in, just as long as you don't kick sand." Joe was relieved to be out of the open. He felt more comfortable with Cody, who was only 12, and Izzy, forever glued to his computer.

"Um, Izzy?"

"Hold on, if I can combine the program with the correct database, then I'll be able to load information ten times as fast as originally thought. And those guys at the computer club thought I was crazy! HA!"

"Oh, ok." Cody returned to his book.

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The girls eventually came outside. Sora couldn't wait to get in the lake. She was sweating up a storm. On the beach there was a strange tent. As Mimi and Yolie put their towels down so they could tan, Sora went over to the tent and poked her head in.

"Are you guys having a party?"

Joe jumped in surprise by the sudden extra head.

"Oh, sorry Joe."

"NO! NO! NO!" Izzy suddenly screamed. The screaming soon turned into moans.

"Ah, excuse me?" Sora asked in confusion.

" I had the wrong database! Now it's freezing everything up! It's probably the one I deleted Tuesday! I knew I should've kept it! Wait! Maybe I did keep it. Please be there, please be there. Yes! YES! YES! YES! It's working! I did it!" In his excitement, Izzy hugged all of them. Sora in the bent down position that she was in, and being tall, fell over. "Isn't it wonderful!" Izzy quickly turned off his computer and closed it. "I have to go to the house to email someone! Be back! Bye!" And with that he was gone.

"Well I see you guy were having fun."

Cody shrugged. "He didn't want to get sand in his laptop so he stole our towels to make the tent."

"I'm going in the lake then." She got up. Tai, Davis and Ken were playing soccer, Ken in the goal, Davis playing defense and Tai shooting. Tai feintedto the left and Davisfell flat on his face. Tai laughed and helped him up. He said something she couldn't hear, and wiped the sweat off his brow. She continued to watch him as he pulled his shirt off and threw it to the side. He played the same trick on Davis, who was on the ground once again. Tai was laughing harder then last time but he still helped him up. Even Ken was trying to hide his smile. Tai said something else and moved in front of the makeshift goal. He had his hands on his knees and a smile on his face that was so familiar, but one she hadn't seen in forever.

To Sora horror, she realized she had been just standing there, staring at . . . at Tai! She quickly looked around to see if anyone had saw. Mimi and Yolie were wearing sunglasses but she had a feeling their eyes were closed, Izzy was in the house, Joe and Cody were in the tent, Matt and TK were roughhousing in the water, and Tai, Davis and Ken were busy with their soccer. No one saw her. Good. She was going in the lake _with Matt_ and no one was going to stop her.

"Stupid Tai."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Matt!"

"Huh?" Tai looked up at the sound of Sora's voice just in time to see Sora jump into Matt's arms. He briefly saw their lips make contact with each other's before the two lost their balance and disappeared under the water.

BAM! A soccer ball slammed into his face.

"Dude, we just got three soccer balls past you, and I think, with that last one, Ken was aiming for your head," Davis said.

Ken looked away guiltily.

"You all right man?"

"Yeah," Tai said, still rubbing his face where the ball hit him. "Just thought I saw something."

Davis looked over to where Sora and Matt were, but a look from Ken told him to keep his mouth shut.

_Stupid Sora._

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Kari had wandered away from the group. She needed to relax after the long three-hour car ride up here, and to be as far away from Tai as possible. The lake was strangely shaped, and had a place where the trees jutted into it, separating here from the beach. "Here" was more rocky then sandy, and the trees gave off a welcome shade. She slipped out of her shoes so that it was easier for her to climb over the large slippery rocks. She perched on the biggest and furthest one out to the lake, dipping her feet into the water.

_Kari . . ._

Oh no, not again, she thought.

_Please, Queen Kari . . . we need you._

"No, stop it!"

_But Queen Kari! Please!_

"No. No!"

_Kari,_

_Kari,_

_Kari!_

_KARI!_

"Kari?" She screamed at the unexpected sound that was next to her instead of in her head and fell into the water.

She surfaced to see worried blue eyes. "Kari!" The voice was now panicked. "Are you ok?"

She started to laugh when she realized it was TK. He smiled when he was sure she wasn't hurt.

"I'm graceful, aren't I?"

"Well I wouldn't suggest trying to be a ballerina," TK answered easily.

They silently treaded water for a while and Kari realized how glad she was that TK was here with her.

"So why are you all the way over here for?"

Kari made a vague gesture with her head. "To get away from the sun, Tai, anything else that could be dangerous or life threatening."

"It is really nice over here," TK said floating on his back.

"Why are _you_ here?"

"Well I was with Matt, and now . . . I'm not." He blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, looking away.

Kari looked at TK, trying to figure out what that meant. "OK." She shrugged and looked up at the sky, deciding not to worry about it.

"Actually, I was sort of looking for you."Her gaze returned to TK. "When Sora came over and she and Matt were . . . you know . . ." He blushed again, and rubbed discreetly at his cheeks, trying to hide it. "Anyway, I decided that not being there was a pretty good idea, and I left. And then, I wanted to find you, because I hadn't seen you on the beach, and I wondered where you went, so I . . . came . . . here."

Kari reached over and gave him a sudden hug around his waist. His arms instinctively went around her, surprised. "Aren't you sweet," she joked.

"Ok, drowning!"

"Kari! TK! Over here!" Tai was running down the beach toward them, followed by Ken, who walked slowly, like he wasn't really sure why he was there, and was just enjoying the beach. Next to him was someone they couldn't see, because he was hidden by shadows.

Tai climbed over the rocks and looked down at them. Kari immediately pulled away, "Sorry to _bother _you," Tai said, smiling. "But Mimi wants to start working on dinner, and she says she needs everyone."

"Start dinner?" TK asked, glancing down at his watch. "It's three o'clock!"

"Tell that to Mimi," Tai grumbled. He took Kari by the arm pulled her up. She yelped in surprise and grabbed TK's hand, and pulled him up too. They made their way toward Ken and his friend.

"Uh-oh," she heard TK mutter.

Standing next to Ken was Davis, and he was looking murderous.

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TK slumped against the wall by his room, trapped. Down the hall toward the kitchen he could hear that Matt and Tai were arguing about something while Sora screamed at both of them, and in his room, Davis and Kari were fighting . . . about him.

Oh God. He knew that he was going to have handle his brother and Tai fighting. They did it all the time, but he hadn't seen this coming.

"You said that TK and you were just friends!"

"We _are _just friends!"

"Then what were you doing in the lake?"

"Swimming."

"With your clothes on? And your arms around him?"

"So I fell in by accident! And being the good _friend_ that he is, he was making sure I was all right!"

"Oh yeah, really. Does _he _know that you two are just friends?"

"Of course he does!"

"Then tell him next time you see him. Just to make sure."

"Maybe I will!"

"Good!"

The door slammed opened and TK abruptly stood up.

"TK?" Kari exclaimed with surprised panic. Davis looked expectantly at Kari. All of sudden Kari flung her arms around TK and buried her face in his chest. Davis was more then surprised and TK was too stunned to feel anything. "Oh TK, you're my best _friend._ That best one that I ever had!" She lifted her head to glare at Davis. "You're so much better then my _other_ friend. The _other_ friend that is stubborn, bullheaded, egoistic, immature, and a selfish moron, but otherwise a very caring person." She put an arm around both of them. "Could we please, _please_ try to get along? For my sake?"

"Fine," Davis grumbled.

TK just nodded, kind of confused.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Isn't this so much fun? Cooking with my oh-so-loving friends!" Mimi piped up, happily stirred a bowlof . . . ah, something.

Tai was busy washing a cabbage with a little more force then necessary and watching Sora and Matt giggling over strawberries. Who giggled over strawberries?

Izzy and Joe were trying to figure out how the ancient stove and oven worked. Ken and Yolie were setting the table, God knew where Davis, Kari and TK went and he believed Cody went to the bathroom.

"Cabbage washed." Tai dropped the large cabbage on the counter next to Mimi.

"Oh good!" She took out a large pot. "Now rip the pieces and put them in here. Sora? Would you help me choose which recipe to follow? I need to know for the next step and I just can't decide."

"Sure Mimi." The two girls left to the table where the cookbook was, leaving Tai and Matt next together at the counter. Matt still slicing strawberries.

_Riiiiiiip!_

_Slice._

_Riiiiiiiiiip!_

_Slice_.

_Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiip!_

_Slice._

_Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip!_

"You might want to make those pieces smaller," Matt replied idly.

"Thanks for the tip, _Matt_."

"Sorry. I'm just saying."

Tai slammed his fists on the counter and opened his mouth to say something, but Matt cut him off.

"If you feel like starting something, Tai, I suggest doing it when I don't have a knife in my hand."

"Well that just suits you, now doesn't it? Seeing, that you became a back stabber kind of best friend."

Matt stabbed the knife into the cutting board and looked at Tai. "It's not like I had this horrible affair with your girlfriend and decided to steal her. It's _your_ fault that Sora left you. Stop acting like a baby! Grow up and get over it!"

Tai all of a sudden attacked Matt, grabbing him by the back of the neck and sticking his head in the sink, turning the faucet on.

"Tai!" Sora ripped Tai away from Matt and helped him take his head out of the sink without ramming it into the faucet. She wiped the water from his eyes. "Matt, are you ok?"

Matt narrowed his eyes and lunged at Tai. They went down in a heap.

Sora screamed and pulled Matt off of Tai. Joe and Izzy helped Tai up and held him incase he'd try anything else. "What's wrong with you?" No one knew if she was addressing Matt or Tai. "You guys are acting like . . . like . . ." She couldn't finish her sentence. Matt had calmed down and didn't look Sora in the face, but Tai looked her straight in the eyes, anger still evident. It was slightly frightening. He was still breathing hard. A small trickle of blood ran from the corner of his mouth where he had bit it upon impact to the ground. "Tai, your bleeding." She reached up to his face, but he moved away.

"Don't touch me, Sora," he said darkly. He wrenched away from Joe and Izzy and headed for the stares.

"What about dinner?" asked Mimi meekly.

"I'm not hungry!"

"Ouch," TK said watching Tai stomp up the stairs, Kari and Davis watching behind him.

"Get outta here, TK," Matt snapped.

"But, _I'm_ hungry."

"Oh you poor baby! Let Mimi feed you!" She led TK to the table and gave him some strawberries. "Hopefully this will hold you until dinner!" She began around the kitchen as if nothing had happened.

Sora stood there shocked. Tai had looked like . . . like she had hurt him. Badly. She had hurt him. _She_ had hurt _him._ She felt her eyes grow hot and dangerously close to tears.

"Sora?" She felt Matt's arms wrap around her. She gratefully leaned up against him. "Are you going to be all right?"

She nodded. "Yeah," she whispered. "Come on. Let's help out with dinner."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Mimi?" Yolie looked down to the bottom bunk where Mimi was busy repainting her toe nails. Yolie's purple hair hung down as she peered at Mimi upside down.

"Hmm?"

"Are you really giving up on dating?"

"Yes."

"But-"

"Yolie, I don't need a boyfriend. A girl doesn't need a guy to feel pretty or smart or strong. We shouldn't have to rely on them. We should be free to live are own life."

"But how will you get married or have a family?"

Mimi blew on her toes. "Well I guess there's that, but that's true love and that's different."

"How can you find true love if you don't look for it?"

"Well you can go with the destiny theory and wait for it to happen, but I guess that wouldn't work if you didn't believe in destiny. Then again, _I _believe in destiny so I figure that destiny will either stick my true love right in front of me or convince me to go out with someone again."

"How are you going to know? If it's destiny, I mean." Yolie pulled her head up. The blood was rushing to her head.

"Well, it's a feeling. I'm not meant to understand it. I'm only human, and human's aren't meant to know everything. I think that's are problem. We want what we are not meant to have. Why can't we be content with what we already know and just wonder? We need to wonder. It's good for us."

Yolie was silent for a while. "Do you think Ken and me are meant to be together?"

"Well do you like him?"

" . . . Yeah."

"Do you really like him?"

"Yeah."

"Does he like you?"

"Yeah."

"Then don't worry about it."

Yolie sighed. "Ok."

"What do you think I should make for tomorrow's dinner? It can't have cabbage _or_ strawberries though. I don't want Tai and Matt getting into another fight. If Tai didn't like cabbage, he could have just told me!"

"Um Mimi-"

"Do you think he's hungry? Maybe I should make something for him. Like a sandwich! Without cabbage." Mimi got up. "Come on Yolie!"

Yolie sighed. It couldn't hurt right?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Thunk!_

_Thunk!_

_Thunk!_

_Thunk!_

Tai repeatedly chucked his soccer ball at the wall and caught it again. Izzy sat on the floor on the other side of the room, naturally with his computer. "Tai, do you need to talk?"

"No."

"Ok then." Izzy turned back to his computer.

"Maybe."

Izzy looked up again.

"I don't think I can live with Matt and Sora for a whole month. Kari didn't tell me that they would be here, the evil little sister that she is. I wasn't even prepared."

"You're not over Sora, are you?"

_Thunk!_

"I don't expect her to come back to me if that's what you mean! I just don't want her to be with Matt."

"That doesn't seem fair, Tai."

"I'll show you fair!" Tai said angrily holding the soccer ball threateningly.

"Sorry! Your right!"

_Thunk!_

Izzy turned back to his computer. He wasn't helping Tai. Tai was going to have to solve things on his own.

_Thunk!_

_Thunk!_

_Thunk!_

Somebody knocked on the door. "Hello!" said a sing song voice. The door opened to reveal Mimi and Yolie. "Tai, we made you a sandwich!"

"Huh?"

Mimi placed the plate on the foot of his bed. "Don't worry. It doesn't have cabbage in it."

She looked at Izzy's computer. "Oh my God! Does your computer have internet access!"

"Um, at the moment," Izzy answered hesitantly.

Mimi screamed with delight. "Oh, can I check my email? My cell phone hasn't worked since I got here."

"Ok, but don't mess any of my things up."

Tai looked at the sandwich. "Maybe I have been a real jerk."

Yolie snickered. "You can say that again."

Mimi gasped. "Yolie! Tai, you're not a jerk."

"Oh, yes I am."

"You all most made Sora cry, you know," Izzy added.

Tai groaned.

"He did what?" Mimi asked shocked.

"Maybe you should apologies."

Tai groaned again.

"Whoa, you have a lot of emails," Yolie said as she looked over Mimi's shoulder.

"Most of them are from my parents."

"You haven't even been gone 24 hours yet!"

Tai picked up the sandwich and took a bite. It was pretty good . . . even if he couldn't identify what was in the sandwich. "Mimi,-" Tai was interrupted by a scream. All heads turned in Mimi's direction.

"What's the matter?" asked Izzy, afraid that she broke something.

"Alice is getting BANGS! Oh my God! She's going to look so pretty!" Everyone slumped down with relief and some exasperation.

"So are you going to apologies to Sora? You should say it to Matt too. He was the one you stuffed his head into the sink."

Tai groaned the loudest as so far and got up. "Fine! And Mimi,"

"Hmm?"

"Thank you for the sandwich," he said all most grudgingly.

"Oh, you're welcome!""

He went down stairs to do Matt first, dreading the moment he had to go to Sora. He slammed on Matt's door. Joe opened it up.

"Where's Matt?"

"Um, in the bathroom."

Well, he tried.

"Ok, by."

He went back upstairs feeling lucky. Then he remembered he was supposed to apologies to Sora too. He knocked on her door which happened to be right a cross from his room. He never noticed that before. Kari opened the door "Tai?"

Tai heaved a heavy sigh. "Is Sora in there?"

Kari looked over her shoulder for a moment then back at Tai. "No?"

Tai glared at her.

"Maybe?"

His glared hardened.

"Ok, but I don't think she wants to talk to you."

"Sora!" Tai shouted.

"I'm not here!" she yelled back.

"Yes you are!"

"So what?"

"I wanted to apologies!"

"Then do it!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Well good!"

"Are you happy now?"

"Yes!"

"Good!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"FINE!"

"FINE!" And with that, Tai stomped away back into his own room.

"Well that sounded that it went well," Yoli noted.

"I can't believe her!" Tai cried as he popped himself on his bed again and picked up his soccer ball.

_Thump!_

_Thump!_

_Thump!_

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That night Sora had dreams of Matt. She be running up to him and he would put his arms around her. But at the end of each of her dreams, when she looked up to kiss him, Matt would turn into Tai.

AN: Whoever were the very first pathetic saps to be in the very first love triangle, I laugh at them.


	4. Chapter 4 Day 2:The squirrel

An: . . .ah . . . remember when I told everyone I was going on vacation . . ._and I never came back?_ Well . . . there's a funny story to that. While I was minding my own buisness, wandering about the hotel, a mysterouse man spotted me and told me he had falling madly in love with me and asked me to marry him. I told him I couldn't, for I needed to return hom and type my Digimon story. He grew angry and kidnapped me. He locked me up in the tower, where my heart grew cold and I was unhappy. Realizing this, he let me go and was so laiden with misery that he killed himself. I have been spending the rest of this time in mourning, with only this black rose to remember him by.

Now that I'm done sprewing crap, I had **MAJOR** writers block. It lasted fo months. I finaly got over it with the help of a squirrel. I realize that a lot of people that use to read this, probably don't now. If you do, thank my cousin, for she was the only one who cared and finaly got me to continue this. And _thank God_ for creating the wonderful creatures such as the squirrel. With out them, I'd still have a blank page.

Chapter 4

Day 2: The squirrel

**The Squirrel**

Anonymous

Whisky, frisky,  
Hippity hop;  
Up he goes  
To the tree top!

Whirly, twirly,  
Round and round,  
Down he scampers  
To the ground.

Furly, curly  
What a tail!  
Tall as a feather  
Broad as a sail!

Where's his supper?  
In the shell,  
Snappity, crackity,  
Out it fell.

At breakfast, Mimi got up early to make pancakes. Kari was the second to get up.

"You're up early," noted Kari.

"I'm making pancakes! . . . And there was this annoying sound that woke me up, but I'm not gonna let it ruin my day! At least I had first dibs on the shower!"

"Hey, I think I heard that sound too. There must be some kind of little animal on the roof."

"An annoying little animal," Mimi grumbled, but she was soon back to her perky self.

One by one every one woke . . . except for Tai, because he always slept in late.

"Great! Pancakes!" Matt said excitedly, pulling a chair out next to TK. TK was innocently eating the strawberries off his pancakes. "How come I didn't get any strawberries?"

TK shrugged his shoulders, not caring.

Matt casually switched his plate with TK's.

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

"I didn't touch mine. It's fine." Matt stabbed a fork into a strawberry.

"But that one was mine!"

"Was it?"

TK grabbed the plate back. Then Matt grabbed the plate. The plate was repeatedly slid across the table, until all the strawberries had rolled off of it anyway.

Eventually Sora ended it by slapping Matt in the head. "If you want strawberries so much just take mine!"

"But I wouldn't want to take your strawberries from you," Matt said politely.

"But you'd take strawberries from me?" TK cried.

Matt stared at his little brother for a moment. "TK, TK. I was not taking them from you. As your older brother, you should voluntarily give them to me."

"Who came up with that crap?"

"Nobody came up with it, it just . . .is."

There was scraping sound on the roof and then what sounded a bunch of nuts rolling off of it. A couple seconds latter it happened again.

"Ok, that sound is starting to get on my nerves," muttered Kari.

Davis shot up from his chair. "Does it, Kari?! I'll take care of it then!" He ran outside.

"Wait! Davis!" Kari sighed. "He's gonna hurt himself, isn't he?"

There was a creak from the stairs, and Tai stumbled awkwardly down the steps. His eyes were still closed and his hair was a mess but he was dressed. He slowly made his way to the kitchen area.

"Good morning, Tai," Sora said nervously.

Tai only raised a hand in response, then he collapsed onto his chair. He sat there for a while, not aware that everyone in the room was staring at him.

"How was your night, Tai?" asked Mimi perkily as she set down a plate full of pancakes in front of him.

"Yeah," was all Tai said.

"That's good," Mimi replied.

TK was using his fork like a catapult and trying to fling a strawberry at Matt. It missed and hit Tai in the head. His head moved a little bit from the momentum, but other then that, he did nothing.

"Tai, are you ok?" asked Izzy.

"Uh . . ."

"Well, you have a strawberry in your hair," said Yolie, trying not to laugh.

"Yeah . . ." was Tai's reply.

There was a sudden crash outside and a cry of pain. "I'm ok," came a faint voice.

"Oh my God! Davis!" Kari pushed herself from the table and ran outside to help him.

"He probably did that on purpose," TK muttered.

"What was that?" Sora asked.

"Nothing," TK quickly stuffed food in his mouth before Sora could ask again.

"Hey Tai!" Yolie poked him in the shoulder. "Could you pass the syrup?"

Tai did so without looking at what he was doing.

"Um . . . Tai? This is the orange juice."

"So?"

"Well . . .though oranges come from trees . . .and maple syrup come from trees, they come from two _different_ trees, and they tend to be _different_. Of course if you enjoy pouring orange juice on _your_ pancakes, pour away, but I'm more of a syrup kind of girl."

"You know what?" Tai turned his tired eyes to Yolie with a finger raised into the air, but before he could finish the threat, Kari came in, supporting Davis on her shoulder.

"Are you sure you're ok, Davis? I think you might've sprained your ankle if you can't put any weight on it."

"I'm totally fine, Kari!" He pulled away from her standing on one foot. "Look, I even caught the little monster!" He lifted a small sack.

Kari peered at the sack, trying to figure out what it was. It suddenly moved, surprising the heck out of her, and she jumped back with a small scream. The fast movement caused Davis to lose his balance, and he fell to the floor. The sack flew from his hand and a very angry squirrel leapt out of it.

The squirrel's first instinct to escape the terror that was Davis was to climb away, and the nearest thing it happened to reach was Mimi's leg.

She dropped the plate she was holding with a crash and screamed a sound so horrible it caused everyone, including the squirrel, to go momentarily deaf. The squirrel leapt from Mimi's pink head and landed on the table, causing silverware, dishes and food to scatter as everyone tried to make a grab for the squirrel. People ran all over the place, trying to catch it, trying to run from it or just simply trying to stay out of the way.

The squirrel sought refuge in the one place that looked remotely familiar to it.

Tai's hair.

Tai didn't scream like Mimi did. Instead he stood stock still. His arms frozen outstretched like wings, a panicked expression on his face. Everyone else stopped what they were doing too, staring at the furry creature in Tai's hair, who was now munching on the strawberry that TK had thrown.

"Get . . . it . . .off . . . me . . ." Tai said with clenched teeth.

Matt slowly picked up the frying pan that was in the sink.

"Tai, don't move."

"I won't if you don't miss."

"I'm not gonna miss."

"But what if you do?"

"I'm not gonna miss. Ok? Ready?"

"No wait! Just like push him off or something."

Matt nudged the squirrel. The squirrel responded by digging it's claws into Tai's scalp.

"Ow! ow! ow! ow!"

"Ok, I'm just gonna knock it off."

"Don't miss!"

"I'm not gonna miss!"

_WHAM!_

Tai cried out in pain. "Dammit, Matt!" He covered his aching head with his arms.

"Oops. I think I missed."

Tai didn't say anything. Instead, he grabbed Matt by the neck and proceeded to strangle him, ramming his body on top of the table. Matt tried to defend himself by whacking him some more with the frying pan, but it wasn't enough to stop Tai's attack.

* * *

Izzy sat on the porch step, typing away at his computer. Everyone was still inside, and the squirrel was no where to be found; apparently it was still in the house though. 

Sora slipped out from the door, sitting next to Izzy, hugging her long legs in misery.

"Hi Sora," Izzy said with out looking up from the screen.

"How's Tai?" The two were quickly separated from each other and sent to their rooms like bad children.

"How's Matt? He was the one being strangled."

Sora gave a small smile. "He's not that hurt. At least he had a weapon."

"Well . . . Tai's . . . like he always is."

Sora groaned and buried her head into her arms.

"Tai still likes you, you know."

"I know! But I'm with Matt now, and now I've ruined their friendship and it's all my fault! I should just die!"

Izzy laughed. "Don't die, Sora. We all love you."

"Some a little too much," she grumbled.

"Don't worry, Tai'll cool down eventually."

* * *

Mimi was sitting on the couch, legs tucked underneath her, hands on her head, shivering uncontrollably. Her hair was still wet from the shower she took after the incident. 

"Mimi," Joe said. "It's gone. It's not even in the room."

"But--but . . . it TOUCHED me!!!!"

"How long do you think she'll stay like that?" Cody asked to anyone.

"And it's still somewhere in the house!!"

"Mimi," Kari said calmly. "Davis is taking care of it right now. Soon we can all forget that this ever happened."

Davis walked back into the room.

"Did you get it?" asked Yolie.

"No. It could be anywhere! In the walls, in our beds. Someone's gonna have a nasty surprise!"

Mimi cowered deeper into the couch.

"Davis!" Kari chided.

"What?"

"Don't worry, Mimi," Yolie said. "The squirrel probably escaped outside."

"But it's like I can still feel it on my skin!!"

"Well, why don't you take another shower then."

"And use up more of the hot water," Davis muttered to himself.

"O . . .ok." She got up shakily. "Good idea."

"Well then," Yolie got up. "We shouldn't stay inside all day!" She grabbed Ken, who wasn't much paying attention. "Let's do something!"

"Like what?"

He was answered by being dragged outside.

"Yeah, ok. I'm coming too," said Kari and of course both Davis and TK followed her.

"Are you coming?" asked Cody to Joe when everyone else had left.

"No, I think I'm going to stay here for awhile. I've had enough excitement already," he said as he relaxed onto the couch.

"Ok," and Cody left too.

* * *

Mimi was in the bathroom, laying out everything she would need so it was easily accessible. She had gotten undressed and had wrapped a towel around herself. She felt herself slowly begin to calm down and found herself looking forward to the hot water. She pushed away the curtain and was about to turn on the faucet when she saw something brown and furry on the floor of the shower. 

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!"

Joe leapt from the couch and shot for the stairs.

Both Matt and Tai had heard the scream but decided that it wasn't their problem and stayed where they were. They figured the other would go anyway and they weren't ready to even breathe the same air yet.

Joe's long legs went down the hall in two strides. As soon as he reached the bathroom door, it slammed open, hitting him in the face. He fell to the floor, losing his glasses. Mimi came out in her towel, screaming and bouncing up and down. She nearly stepped on Joe.

"Mimi, what is the matter!?" He sat up and tried to grope for his glasses.

Mimi continued screaming and pointing at the bathroom, not making any sense.

Joe found his glasses and put them on. "Mimi," he sighed.

She cowered behind him. "It's in there!!"

Tai's curiosity getting the better of him, he cracked his door open a little bit.

He found Joe, sitting on the ground with his long legs sticking out awkwardly, and Mimi cowering behind him, sobbing into his back, wearing nothing but a towel.

"I don't wanna know," Tai said and closed the door again.

Joe sighed again. He turned around and took Mimi by the shoulders. "Mimi, calm down. What's in there? The squirrel?"

She covered her face with her hands and nodded. "Get rid of it! Kill it! Do something!"

Joe took a deep breath. "Ok . . ." He slowly walked to the bathroom. Stepping into the bathroom, he could hear a scratching sound of nails on tile. He grabbed the closest thing to him, which happened to be a hair dryer. He pointed at the shower curtain like a gun. "Ok . . .squirrel, don't do anything that'll need medical attention."He slowly pulled the curtain, hair dryer at the ready. Looking at the shower floor . . . nothing was there. He sighed in relief at the thought of it being gone, or maybe Mimi had imagined it. He reached for the shower curtain to return it to it's place, when he felt something fuzzy.

The squirrel screamed a squirrel scream and leapt onto his arm.

"Holy--"

* * *

Mimi heard a loud crash from the bathroom. _I wonder if Joe's all right,_ Mimi wondered as she heard more things fall and what sounded like Joe slipping and falling. 

"Joe?!"

There was no answer.

"Did you get it?"

"Well, Mimi," Joe said in voice that was filled with pain. "I don't think so."

"Oh no!"

* * *

Joe painfully picked himself up from the ground. He seemed to be on the ground a lot today. He had landed on Mimi's things. Shampoo, conditioner and other things had exploded upon impact. His head landed on the nice soft sink. 

Note: Bathrooms are the number one room where accidents happen.

Joe was quite familiar with head injuries and knew it was bad when the world around you started to spin and you saw two of everything. He put a hand to his head and saw blood.

"Great . . ."

"Joe!"

That was when he saw the squirrel scamper out of the bathroom, followed by more of Mimi's screaming which did wonders for his head. He stumbled out of the bathroom.

"It went that way!" Mimi screamed and pointed down the stairs.

"Sure thing. . . . I'll get 'em." He started that way holding his head.

"Joe!"

"Mimi . . .could you talk just a little quieter?"

"You're bleeding!"

Joe was shocked that she'd even noticed, you know with the whole horrible squirrel attacking her in the bathroom trauma happening. With one hand still holding her towel she lifted her other to gently push away Joe's hand . She gasp at the sight of blood and quickly placed her hand over her mouth.

"Oh . . .it's not that bad. The scalp is rich with blood vessels, so even a minor cut to the head can bleed profusely. It looks a lot worse then it actually is."

"Well . . .let me change and I can help you." She quickly went to the bathroom.

* * *

Mimi was dressed and in the kitchen with Joe who had some ice wrapped in a sock pressed against his head and Mimi had made them both some hot chocolate. 

"Here you go," she set down a mug in front of him.

"Thank you."

"Um-hm." She sat across from him. "So . . . you're gonna be ok, right?"

"Of course. The bleeding's already stopped. I'll probably have a bump for a couple of days though. Maybe a week."

"Oh . . ." She stirred her hot cocoa idly. "Were you . . ."

Joe raised an eyebrow. "Was I?"

"Were you gonna chase that squirrel even though your head was bleeding?"

Joe shrugged. "I guess I was going to try."

"That would of been very . . ." She tried to think of a word to use. Joe thought for sure she'd say stupid but instead, "noble of you. Just for me . . . I was being selfish . . . again. I'm sorry."

Joe stared blankly at Mimi. "No problem."

"It's not just that. Since we've known each other, I've been . . . taking advantage of you . . .and . . ."

Joe's insides were turning. Mimi never seemed to pay much attention to him before. She'd always been the princess and him the nerd.

"And everybody else!" Mimi burst into tears, suddenly turning the conversation to _more _then just Joe, and for some reason he felt disappointed. "I'm such a horrible person!! Maybe that's why Chris left me! That's why nobody loves me!"

_Oh boy, not this again._

"Mimi . . ." Joe sighed. "I love you." Mimi blinked her tear covered eyes at him. "I mean _we_ love you. Tai, Matt, Sora and the others. I like you is what I meant to say, or I don't hate . . . you . . ." Too bad the squirrel didn't kill him.

She looked like she was about to say something but the screen door opened and Davis and TK came in auguring.

"Ok, Davis, how could I have possibly cheated in volleyball?"

"Duh! It was obvious! Wasn't it Kari? Kari would know. She was on _my_ team."

TK gave Davis an annoyed look. "How does that have anything to with anything!?"

"Nothing, I just like to point it out."

"Cut it out, Davis!" Kari said as she came in too, followed by Sora, Izzy and Cody. "TK's team won fair and square, ok?"

"But he had Sora on his team!" Davis whined.

Sora laughed. "Sorry you were beaten by a girl, Davis?"

"Joe, what happened to your head?" TK suddenly asked.

"Well . . ."

"The squirrel attacked him!" Mimi interrupted.

"It attacked you?" asked Davis.

"Not really. I kinda fell."

Davis ignored him. "Hmm . . . this squirrel is becoming a real problem. I should do something about it."

"Yeah, you should, you're the one that let it in!" TK cried angrily.

"Don't worry Kari," Kari looked a round confused. Who said she was worried? "I'll catch the rodent. I did it once, I can do it again!"

* * *

Davis concentrated on his plan to get rid of the enemy. He was getting a vibe that nobody was interested into helping him. That was fine, it made him look better. 

But as everyone went outside and he searched endless hours in the house looking for the stupid squirrel, he began to question his skills. The only one still inside was Matt, shut up in his room. Davis could here his music through the wall. He had yet to check Matt's room for the squirrel so he decided to knock on his door.

He cracked it open after the warning knock and peeked in.

Matt stared at him unamused.

"Hello . . . Matt."

"What do you want, Davis."

"Nothing . . ."

"Then why are you in here?"

"Why are _you_ in here?"

"This is my room!"

"Of course it is, but why are you inside on such a beautiful day instead of doing something with Sora?"

Matt glared at him for a second, then sighed. "Sora's pissed off at me."

Davis was surprised. "She is?"

"Well, she's mad at me. 'Cause I fight with Tai. But it's that stupid jerk's fault. He's _always_ been like that."

"Whoa . . .so . . .What do you do to get a girl to like you . . .again?"

Matt shrugged. "I don't know. It just happens, I guess."

"Oh."

"What's the matter?"

"I thought . . . I don't know. Wanna help me catch the squirrel?"

Matt thought about it for a second then, "Why?"

"It'll make you manly in front of Sora . . ." Davis said wiggling his eyebrows.

"Ok, that might have been the most stupidest thing I ever heard come out your mouth."

"But it'll be fun! And besides, I can't do it on my own!" He pouted.

"Fine, whatever." Matt got up and put his guitar down. "What have you tried so far?"

"So wait, how does the squirrel get into the box?"

Matt sighed. "I've explained this to you 5 freakin times!"

"Just one more time." They were leaning over a an artistic diagram of Matt's creation on the kitchen table.

"Ok, we tape the box to the floor with duct tape and then put the squirrel food in front of the box,"

"In front of the box? Why don't you just put the food _in_ the bow?"

"Davis, work with me! We are working with a wild animal here. Wild animals don't like enclosed spaces, so we have to put the food _outside_ the box."

"But squirrels live in holes in trees and those are inclosed spaces."

"Davis?"

"Yes?"

Matt pointed to the box that they had found in one of the closets. It was a decent size. "Does look like a hole in a tree?"

"No?"

"What is it?"

"A box?"

"Exactly! We put the food _outside _the box. We open the doors of the box and duct tap the large branches to the doors. Branches are good because it will give the squirrel a false sense of security and camouflages the box. Then we pull the branches back with string, so when you release the string, the branches will snap forward, sweeping the squirrel into the box. We tackle the box, tape it shut, and then we have a squirrel in a box."

"How did you come up with that?"

"Um . . . I'm _brilliant_. Come on, help me with these branches."

They got rid of the table in the kitchen and taped their box to the middle of the floor. The doors attached to the branches which were bent back with string. The string was taped to their hiding place, which was the table flipped on its side. The bait was nuts stuck together with peanut butter. They waited behind the table, scissors ready to cut the string.

"Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"How will the squirrel know that the food's here?"

"Hmm . . . I know, we need to waft!"

"What?!"

"Like blow the smell of the bait around." Matt found a small fan and plugged it into the wall. "But we can only put it on for a little while to make the smell travel. Then we'll have to turn it off so we don't scare the squirrel."

They did so and waited.

* * *

"Hey." Izzy was on his laptop as usual, sitting on a large rock on the beach. Tai was fooling around with his soccer ball. "Whatcha doing?" 

"Well I thought I deleted this program that had come up with but I actually hadn't, which was good 'cause I needed to turn it in, well anyway I thought, 'If I could get software to be able to work that fast, maybe I could beat my own record if I fiddled with its makeup code.'"

"Really?" Tai said obviously not listening. "Where's Davis and Ken?"

"Ken went on this hike with Yolie . . .or something. Davis . . .Actually I have no clue where Davis is. Maybe he's inside."

"Why?"

"I don't know." Tai bounced the ball on his knees for the millionth time and decided to go look for Davis. Davis was due to get his butt kicked in soccer anyway.

"Shh-shh." Matt put a finger to Davis' lips though he hadn't said anything. The squirrel was in the kitchen. It was slowly making its way to the food.

"Now?" Davis whispered.

"No."

"Now?"

"_No._"

"Now?"

" . . ."

"Now?"

"Ok, now!" Davis cut the string. The doors snapped shut, sweeping the squirrel inside.

"Did we get it?"

"I think so!"

"Yes!"

That was when Tai came in. "Dav--" He was cut off and he tripped over the wire to the fan. He fell forward, and his face landed on the box. The box, crushed by Tai's weight, opened and out flew the squirrel. "What the hell?!"

"Uh-oh," Matt muttered. This was bad. Tai would kill him, then after he was dead, Sora would kill him even more. He was doomed. For some reason, the world hated him. He looked over at Davis who was laughing. Apparently he thought this was funny.

Tai was holding his head where there was a small cut that the corner of the box gave him. "What--What is this crap in the middle of the floor for!?"

"I don't know. Davis, what were you doing in here?" Matt turned to Davis. He really didn't want Tai to hurt him again.

"What?! But you . . ." Davis waved his arms about, while Matt made his escaped claiming that he needed to ask someone where the first aid was.

* * *

"Tai are you ok?" Kari asked her older brother. Matt had fetched Kari because she was the first person he found. Then he left to use the bathroom. 

"No." He sat on the catch, a hand over his cut.

"Davis, I can't believe you made such a mess in the kitchen! It's dangerous!" Kari scolded Davis.

"But--"

"Go get the first aid! It's the least you can do for what you've done."

Davis muttered to himself as he went to the closet to get it. He opened the door and gapped at what was inside it.

"Kari!"

"What?"

"There's a whole nest of them!"

"Of what!?"

The squirrels had found there way though the walls and the was a hole in this particular closet where they found a nice place to snuggle their young in the old blankets. One of the squirrels remembered Davis as the tyrant that attacked it on the roof. With the instincts to protect its young, it flew out of the closest, followed by its mate, and attacked Davis' face.

"Aaaagh!" Davis fell backward against the wall behind him.

Kari ran to the scene. "Davis!" Davis was rolling on the floor, wrestling with the furry little creature. "Don't hurt the squirrels!" she whimpered.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, everyone stood in front of the closet with the squirrels. 

"As everyone knows," Kari said. "We've had a squirrel problem. There's actually a family of them in this closet, but we can't get rid of them. That would be taking them away from their home."

Davis rolled his eyes, his face covered in squirrel scratches.

"I'm asking if we could let this family live in peace in this closet. We have plenty other closets and it's not like they're hurting us."

"What?!" Davis exclaimed.

"Shut up Davis! That's only because you were being mean to them. Who agrees with me or who thinks we should turn these baby squirrels out into the cold?"

Mimi was in tears. "The poor baby squirrels! Ok . . . as long as they keep out of the shower . . . and the kitchen . . .and my room . . .and where ever I am."

"What about everyone else?" Kari was answered with a lot of, "I don't care"s and "sure, whatever"s. "Then it's settled. This will be the squirrel closet."

"But Kari!" Davis cried. "They are a menace to society!"

"Davis," Kari opened the closet. The squirrels were all nestled in the old blankets looking adorable. "Do they look like a menace to society to you?"

Davis made a noise in answer. Kari backed away and before Davis closed the door, he gave the squirrels an I'm-watching-you look.

"I'm hungry," said Cody.

"I'll make dinner!" Mimi chirped.

And so ended day one.


	5. Chapter 5 Day 3

AN. Ok, I don't have a poem for this one . . .or a cool title name. Day Three? what kind of name is that? sigh- I don't think this chapter flowed right . . . yet i can't put my finger on what is wrong with it. Well at least it's done. (suddenly remembers something and starts to cracck up) Oh yeah. I had something thay was like an 'alternat ending' but I couldn't use it because it wouldn't beable to type after that. My friend wanted me to put it in the AN. but I'm thinking of putting it in my profile. Tell me if you want to read it or not.

Chapter 5

Day Three

Sora woke up the next day feeling disgusting. She didn't get to shower yesterday because Mimi was in it most of the time, and when she wasn't, Kari or Yoli was. She cracked the door open and looked down the hallway. The bathroom door was open and inviting. With a thrill of excitement, she grabbed her clothes and toiletries and dove for it.

Once inside, she turned the water on to let it warm up, then undressed. She held the towel to herself as she continued to wait for the water to warm up. _Come on, come on,_ she thought. She was anxious to be clean.

She heard a door slam open from somewhere in the hall and the sound of running feet. She only had enough time to briefly wonder if she remembered to lock the bathroom door, when said bathroom door slammed open.

Screaming, she covered herself with her towel lightning fast.

"Shit, sorry!" It was Tai. He swung the door back, but to Sora's annoyance didn't close it all the way and had one eye peeking though. "Um . . . Sora?"

"I can't _believe _you!" She turned off the shower so she could be heard better.

"I told you I'm sorry! You're the one who didn't lock the door! And Sora--"

"Most people knock before they barge into a bathroom!"

"_Sora!_ I _REALLY_ have to pee! I can see you're gonna take awhile, so can you just let me use the bathroom and then you can continue your merry little business."

"_No!_ I was here first! Go downstairs! Besides, this is the girls bathroom."

"Wait, why it _this_ the girls bathroom?"

"Because all the girls are _upstairs_ and this bathroom is _upstairs_."

"Me and Izzy are upstairs too. Why should we go all the way downstairs?"

"Because that's where all other the guys are! And if you were anything close to a gentleman, you'd go downstairs!"

"Oh, ok. That makes perfect sense. Well, this argument has prolonged me from peeing and now I know I'll _definitely_ not make it all the way downstairs. I don't know about you, but I'm using this bathroom." He crossed the room to the toilet.

"What are you doing!?"

Sora was answered by the sound of Tai unzipping his pants. "Oh God!" she said and looked away. "You're disgusting!" She stomped out of the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.

Loathing Tai, she waited for him to be done.

Izzy tiredly came out of his room. He made a right as if to go to the bathroom, but one look at Sora told him to go left instead.

Sora was wondering what was taking Tai so long, when she heard the shower suddenly turn on. She couldn't believe it! That moronic jerk had stolen the shower from her! She kicked the door as hard as she could. "I'LL KILL YOU, TAI!"

She stomped down the hall, down the stairs, into the kitchen where Mimi, Davis, Cody and Izzy watched her pass, into the downstairs hallway and up to the second bathroom. She knocked loudly on it before opening it anyway. A startled Matt and Joe looked up from brushing their teeth.

"GET OUT!!" she screamed. Matt and Joe did what she said, very confused. Sora shut the door behind them.

"Ok . . . what was up with her," wondered Matt.

Joe shrugged. "She's your girlfriend."

* * *

When Sora got out of the shower, towel wrapped around her again since she had left her clothes in the upstairs bathroom, Tai was mercilessly outside the door. 

"Hey Sora, isn't this the_ boy's_ bathroom?" he said with a smirk.

Sora stopped and for a few seconds just stared at him, dumbfounded by his horrible evilness. "I . . . hate you." That was all she could say. It wasn't that big of a deal. It was already done. She already took her shower. It didn't take that much extra effort. She shouldn't be this angry. A little annoyed sure, but not this boiling hate for the guy standing in front of her.

She pushed past him as tears threaten to come out of her eyes. Matt saw them.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm getting dressed," was all Sora said.

"What'd you do to her, Tai!" he cried out angrily

"Nothing!"

Great, they were fighting again!

* * *

Once Sora was dressed, she came downstairs and joined the crowded table for breakfast. She squeezed herself on the same chair Matt was on and he put his arms around her. They gave her comfort, and she forgot all about Tai. Except that he was sitting right across from her, so she really didn't forget _all_ about him. 

Yolie suddenly stood up. "I have an announcement to make!" she said happily.

"You're pregnant!" Davis blurted out.

Ken began to choke on the orange juice he was drinking. Tai burst out laughing at the expression on Yolie's face. Matt even chuckled but quickly stopped himself.

"_No._" Yolie glared at Davis, along with Kari. Yolie turned back to Ken. "Ken, are you ok?"

Ken nodded. His face was bright red from a mixture of embarrassment and lack of oxygen. "It just went down the wrong pipe," he said in a tight voice.

"Well then, before there are anymore OBNOXIOUS OUTBURSTS, yesterday, Ken and I went on a hike. It was beautiful! Wasn't it Ken?"

Ken's face was still pink. "Um . . . yeah."

"I want everyone to come with us again today."

"Hiking?" Mimi placed a slender finger on her lips. "Is that hard?"

"Ahh . . . of course not, Mimi! You have plenty of muscle!" Yolie said striking the air with her fist.

"Really?" Mimi began inspecting her arms.

"Anyway, I want to do something with everyone today. And no one is staying inside all day, like _some_ people." She glared at Matt and Tai. "What were you guys _doing_ with each other, anyway?"

Tai shot up. "I wasn't _with_ him!" He shouted and pointed at Matt. Matt rolled his eyes.

"Sure. Let's leave as soon as possible!" Yolie just assumed everyone would come.

"I gotta go to the bathroom, kay?" Matt said as he kissed Sora on the cheek and got up. More people started to leave to get ready for the hike as breakfast slowly ended. Kari and Sora were the last to leave.

"What's wrong?" asked Kari.

"Your brother's an asshole," Sora muttered.

"What else is new?" Kari said with wry grin.

Sora laughed. "Yeah, I guess." She traced her fingers on the edge of the table. "I don't know why I care any more."

"Did he do something? I bet I can think of way to get back at him," Kari said with an evil smile.

Sora raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"I'm his sister! I have tons of ideas!"

* * *

Mimi came outside with her arms up in the air. "I'm ready!" she said and laughed with excitement. 

"Um . . ." Joe stared at her feet. She was wearing six inch platform shoes. "You might want to put on a pair of sneakers."

Mimi laughed. "But I don't own any sneakers."

"You're kidding me! All those shoes that you dragged over here, and none of them are sneakers!"

Mimi shook her head, her eyes big as if she was about to cry.

"Shh! It's ok! If you break your ankles, I'll just have to carry you," Joe said sarcastically.

"Really? Thanks Joe!" Then she hopped down the porch as if she was trying to break her ankles at that moment to avoid walking all together.

Joe sighed. Sora overheard the conversation, and packed an extra pair of her sneakers for Mimi.

The team started to trek out, Yolie leading the way. She was pretty sure where she was going and when she wasn't sure, Ken would correct her.

Matt took Sora's hand as they walked. Tai was behind them and rolled his eyes.

"Yolie?" asked Cody. "How long it this hike going to be?"

"I don't know. Decent length."

Cody groaned.

Yolie put a hand on his shoulder. "Think of the exercise, soldier!" They continued walking. "Isn't it a beautiful hike?"

Tai elbowed Davis. "Hey Davis, look! A tree!"

"Wow Tai, I never saw one of those before!"

"I know! Good thing Yolie brought us all the way out here! We would've missed out on that beauty!"

"Ok!" Yolie stopped and turned to glare at Tai. "_You_ need to get out more!"

"I get out plenty!"

Yolie laughed. "What did you do yesterday? Oh yeah! You stayed in your room for most of the day! What have you been doing for the last few weeks? Staying in your room all day! Why?! So you can sulk and mope like it's the end of the world or something!"

"I haven't been sulking! It's none of your business on what I've been doing!"

Yolie laughed bitterly. "Well I'm sorry for taking you away from your 'not sulking' to hang with us."

She turned around and started the pace a bit faster then before.

"What's her problem?" Tai asked Davis.

"I don't know. I tend to tune her out. Hey Tai, look! A rock!"

"Wow Davis! A rock!"

Kari smacked her hand against her forehead. This was not going to end well.

Once Tai and Davis started to chuck rocks at each other, Kari and TK let them pass them for their own safety.

"Do you think it's working?" Kari asked TK.

"What?"

"The plan! Trying to get us all friends again. 'Cause I--"

"It's only been a couple of days Kari. I think Tai is acting better then I expected. Of course . . . I'm not really sure why he keeps hanging out with Davis."

Kari laughed. "It might be because there both morons."

"Hey!" Davis turned his attention to the pair, being hit with a rock in the progress. "What are you two whispering about!?"

"The weather," TK said.

"Yes, it's beautiful," added Kari.

"Well I'm watching you, lover boy! Remember Kari says that she just wants to be friends, right Kari?"

Kari sighed. "Yes Davis, we've been through this a hundred times. We are all just friends. Well, except for . . . you know." Tai kicked a rock out of his way harder then necessary.

TK slowed his pace. "Yeah," he whispered.

All of a sudden Mimi collapsed onto the ground.

"Mimi, are you all right!?" Joe almost tripped over her but stopped himself. Unfortunately Sora wasn't looking where she was going and she ran into him, followed by Matt.

"I can't go on!" Mimi wailed. "I'm to tired! I think I'll die!"

"Mimi, I brought you a pair of sneakers. You'll feel better once you put them on," Sora said and slipped off her backpack.

"Sora! You are so kind!" Mimi sniffled. "You went to the trouble!"

"Mimi, it's fine."

"Hey Yolie!" Ken called. She was way up ahead and didn't know that everyone had stopped. He waved her over and she started to jog back. When she was almost there, she tripped and almost fell, but Ken caught her.

"Thanks Ken," she said. She looked at the ground. "What did I trip on?"

On the trail was what appeared to be a large foot print.

Davis elbowed his way to where Yolie and Ken were. "Whoa! I know what that is!"

"Really?" asked Yolie.

The rest of them where now listening.

"It's Big Foot!"

Ken looked at Davis seriously. "Big Foot?"

Davis replied just as seriously. "Yes."

"There's got to be something wrong with you."

Mimi screamed. "Big Foot?!" She cowered into Sora. Everybody gathered around the footprint.

"That's some foot," committed Cody.

"It doesn't even really look like a foot print," said TK.

"If there's one there should be more," Izzy said. They all looked around, but there was only one footprint to be seen. "That's weird."

"Do you think one of us put it here to freak everyone else out?" asked Yolie

"Hey, don't look at me!" said Tai. "I've been 'sulking' remember?"

Kari stared blankly at the footprint. It was round, but looked like it had 8 'toes' coming from all angles. It kind of looked a spider with wiggly legs. For reason, Kari knew that the 'toes' were tentacles, and his foot was blue and slimy. How did she know that?

_Queen Kari._

"Kari!"She gasped and looked up. TK was staring at her. "Come on, everyone's gone ahead. Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I must be a little dehydrated."

"Here, have some of my water."

"Thanks TK." She smiled at him ad he handed her the water.

"No problem."

* * *

The group stopped to take a rest. They were on a high cliff that over looked the lake. They sat at the edge, dangling their feet. 

"Wow, Yolie, you were right. This is beautiful," said Sora.

"Hey TK," called Davis who was sitting on the other side of Kari. "I dare you to jump off into the lake."

"Um . . . no."

"I didn't think you would. I would . . . if Kari wanted me too."

"I don't!" Kari said in alarm.

"See, Kari doesn't want me to jump off a cliff!"

"No, but _I_ wouldn't mind if you did."

They ate lunch there; Mimi had packed sandwiches. Izzy grabbed one for himself and one for Tai, taking a seat next to him. Tai was staring at the lake, not saying anything. Izzy handed him the sandwich. "I'm not sure if that thing _was_ a footprint," Izzy mused. "At least not from a creature native to Japan. Maybe a meteor fell--"

"Izzy, do think it looks like I'm sulking?"

"Ah . . . what kind of answer do you want?"

Tai gave him a playful shove. "A true full one."

"Maybe you should just get a new girlfriend. Then people wouldn't think you were sulking."

"But I don't want a girlfriend." Lie. He just didn't want a _new_ girlfriend. He stole a look at Sora.

She leaned over Matt and stole his last strawberry, putting it her teeth and smile back at him. Matt responded by stealing the strawberry back as he kissed her.

Tai quickly looked away. He _really_ wished he hadn't seen that. Tai decided to change the subject. "Hey Izzy, how come you don't have a girlfriend?"

Izzy's face turned red. "Um . . .uh . . .cause."

Tai grinned. "Is there a 'special some one'?"

"What?! No! Um . . .maybe. Ok, yeah."

"Really? Who is she?"

Izzy sighed. "She doesn't even know my name."

"Who is she?!" Tai asked again.

"Just some girl at school." Izzy took a bite from his sandwich.

"Well, ask her out then."

Izzy choked on his sandwich. "I can't do that!"

Tai looked around confused. "Why?"

"Be–because . . . it would be weird for some guy she doesn't know to just randomly ask her out! . . .and . . .I don't know what to do on a date."

Tai laughed. "Just take her to the movies. That's what everyone else does. That way you won't even have to make conversation."

"But I don't know what kind of movie she likes."

"Take her to one that you like."

"But what if she hates it!? Besides! I don't know any movies! I hardly ever go to the movie theaters! It would be disastrous!"

Izzy felt weird not having his computer in front of him. He couldn't use it to distract him from Tai looking at him.

"Well, why don't you just ask her what movie she'd like to see?"

"Because that would involve me talking to her."

"Man, I think that will be inevitable anyway. Have you talked to her at all yet?"

"She dropped her pencil once and I told her."

"Well that's a start. Don't worry Izzy. Girls are afraid of us just as much as we are afraid of them."

"That's easy for you to say. You're not as short as a leprechaun!"

"So you're a little on the short side. It's not incredibly noticeable."

Izzy covered his head with his hands. "What if she already has a boyfriend?"

"Have you seen her with someone else?"

"No, but what if she has a secret boyfriend or one that doesn't go to our school?"

"Ok, Izzy, now you're just making up excuses. _And_ you still haven't told me her name yet. Do I know her?"

"No. She's in my home room."

"Her _name_?"

"Miki . . ."

"Miki?"

"Yes."

Tai smiled.

"What?!"

"Nothing." He'd wondered when Izzy would _ever_ get himself a crush. He was too glued to that computer. It couldn't be healthy.

"I'm going to ask Kari if I can borrow her digital camera so I can take a picture of that footprint." Izzy got up and trudged over to Kari.

Tai gave a pleasant sigh. For a moment he completely forgot about Sora.

* * *

Everyone began to clean up. Kari stopped when she saw something on the lake. She thought it was a wave, but the water was calm. There shouldn't be one single wave in the middle of the lake. Could it have been a very large fish? She also thought she saw a spark of red. She took a step closer . . . then another . . . and another . . . She didn't realize how close she was to the edge. She felt something pull at her. He wanted her to go forward. 

Her next step was on nothing but air.

She fell forward . . .

. . .but someone grabbed her arm, stopping her motion, her hair jerking forward.

"Kari!" Tai pulled her up. "What the Hell were doing?! Are you _trying_ to kill yourself?!"

"I . . ." She hadn't realized what she was doing at all. It scared her. She looked at Tai who was expecting an answer. She put a hand to her head. She couldn't think of anything to say. "I'm sorry."

Tai looked at her worriedly. "Come on. Let's go back to the camp."

* * *

"Hey, Yolie?" Sora whispered into the dark room. Mimi was already asleep, exhausted by the hike. Yolie was reading using the light of a flashlight. "Come over here." 

As quietly as she could, Yolie climbed down the ladder of the bunk and followed Sora to her room. "What are we doing?"

"We're gonna get back at Tai for being a jerk," said Kari.

"Really? Finally! That moron has been bugging the hell out of me! Him and Davis," said Yolie.

"Do you guys have any suggestions?" asked Sora.

"I don't want to do anything that might effect TK and Izzy," Kari said.

"Yeah, they're nice boys. How did they get stuck with Tai and Davis?" Yolie said. "We have to make sure that prank hits _them_."

Kari snapped her fingers together. "You know what Davis _really_ hates?"

"TK?" asked Yolie.

"Besides him. He hates those squirrels in the closet."

Yolie giggled. "We should put some in his bed or something!"

"We should cover his pillow with peanut butter while he's sleeping then set the squirrel at it!"

"Don't worry Sora," Yolie said. "We'll get Tai too . . . but with something else . . . something big . . ."

"What time is it now?" Sora asked

"Almost eleven. Tai went to bed early"

"We could dye all his clothes pink!" Yolie exclaimed.

"Can we do that?" asked Sora.

"Well, Mimi has enough pink dye to last her 5 years. The only problem is getting it all done before Tai gets up."

"Tai doesn't get up early," said Kari.

"I have confidence we can do it! Ok, I'll get the dye, I don't think Mimi will notice if some of it's missing, Kari you get the peanut butter and your squirrel friend and Sora, do you think you can get all of Tai's clothes with out waking him?"

"Nothing can wake up Tai."

"Ok, then," Yolie said "mission Give-Obnoxious-Boys-What-They-Deserve is set!"

* * *

Sora tried Tai's door. It wasn't locked. Figures, Tai wouldn't think of privacy issuers. She opened the door just a crack, and a small sliver of light hit the edge of the bunk beds. Both Izzy and Tai were in their beds. She slipped in and closed the door behind her. She had a tote bag that belonged to Kari. The moon shone in through the window. She could barely make out Izzy as a curled up tiny lump on top bunk 

Tai . . . slept like he usually did when it was hot, covers on the floor, face down on the pillow, one arm draped over the side, in his boxers.

Sora stood there motionless. She couldn't stop staring at Tai. She was afraid that any second now he'll wake up. Why was she in here?! Why couldn't Yolie do this? Or Kari? Kari should be doing this. She'd seen Tai in his boxers millions of times, she was his sister. Of course that shouldn't have anything to do with it. It actually just meant they would have more clothes to dye.

Why wasn't she moving yet?

What if Tai _did_ wake up? What could she say to him to explain why she was in his room, while he was sleeping?! This would look _so_ wrong!

Move!

Yes, she should just get his clothes. She made her way to the dresser. A lot of Tai's clothes were on the ground and she picked them up. She accidently tripped over one of Izzy's many wires. Something fell over.

"Shoot!" she said in a harsh whisper before she could stop herself. She quickly covered her mouth.

Tai started to move!

He pushed himself up with his arms, turned his head, and fell back down, muttering something she couldn't hear.

She let herself relax, then . . .

"Sora . . ."

OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! She was caught! She was doomed! She was more then doomed, she was dead, more then dead it would be like she never existed!

She waited . . . but nothing happened. She looked at Tai. He was in the same position as before. Did she imagine it? She was sure he said her name.

More then slightly disturbed, she finally got to the dresser. Finding what shirts and pants were Tai's was pretty easy. She had seen them all before. Socks were a different story. She eventually realized that Tai had bigger feet than Izzy and figured out who's were who.

Underwear was like a test from Hell.

She stared at the two draws dumfounded. How the hell was she suppose to know what underwear Tai wore?! And then she got an idea. She would just have to see what brand of underwear he was wearing now, and compare.

She tip toed back over to Tai.

Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.

She could just picture Tai waking up now.

"_Hey Sora, what are you doing over my bed while I'm sleeping?"_

"_Oh nothing Tai, I'm just trying to see what brand of underwear you wear so I can find the rest of your underwear to dye pink!"_

She shakily held the pair she had, comparing the top band, looking for the brand name.

Yes! They were the same! Now she could leave and never, never come back. She stuff the clothes into the bag and left.

* * *

Sora, Yolie and Kari tip-toed out side into the small shed that had a washing machine, Kari carrying the biggest pot she could find. 

"Ok," Yolie said. "I have the pink dye."

"I don't know guys," Sora said holding up Tai's dark blue shirt. "I don't think this will dye well. It'll turn purple."

"That's why," Yolie had an answer for everything, "We're gonna bleach everything first, then dye it pink."

This process took a long time. Eventually, they all went tiredly back inside. After Sora declared she was _not_ going back in Tai's room, Kari volunteered to replace all the clothes.

Sora collapsed onto her bed. Kari must have gone out to put peanut butter on Davis' pillow . . . or maybe she'd forgotten. Anyway, by the time Kari came back Sora was asleep.


	6. Chapter 6 just hanging

An. Ok, I'm sending this in. Usually, my friend checks over all my chapters to look for grammer and spelling issues. I'm sorry guys, but my seeminly flawless spelling asnd grammer, is not. Well just look at the AN. Does that look like how you spell seeminly? well, I called her, email her, but she's gone. I don't know where she is, so she couldn't edit for me. I waited all day and I couldn't wait any longer. So sorry for grammer and spelling issues

I think I _finnaly _got Yolei's name spelled right. Thanks to . . . unhealthy-obsession. Well I already butcher that name.

Also, remember that kid? He had brown hair . . .name was . . .Conner? Connie? Cody! That's it! Does anyone notice he kind of just . . .fades into the background? Like a tree, or a rock. Well, he's not in this chapter at all. His name isn't even mentioned. So I'm dedicating this chapter to him. That poor kid.

I . . .don't have a poem. I lost the energy to look for one.

I thought my chapter title was clever. . .in a corney throw tomatoes at me kinda way. HA! . . .ok I'm done now.

Chapter 6

Just Hanging

TK lay in bed, eyes still closed, feeling the sunlight on his face. He didn't want to move yet, he was too comfortable. He heard Davis mutter to himself. Davis talked in his sleep a lot. It was annoying at first, but TK learned to deal with it. He opened his eyes and stretched out an arm to the floor. Then he rolled over to his side, looking at Davis.

He blinked, trying to get his eyes to focus. He could be wrong, but it looked like there was a squirrel nibbling on Davis' ear. TK sat up. Davis made noises, but didn't appear to be awake.

Smothering a snicker, TK whispered, "Davis?"

No response.

TK got up and tiptoed over to Davis. The squirrel didn't appear to be bothered at all. There seemed to be peanut butter, smothered on his pillow and on his hair. "Ah . . . Davis?"

"Stupid TK . . ." he mumbled and rolled over. The squirrel was a little annoyed at the disturbance, but kept on licking the salty peanut butter.

"Davis . . . there's like a squirrel . . . on your head."

A few seconds past by.

"AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

* * *

"You evil devil women!" Davis said while pointing at Yolei who was sitting on the coach. Yolei had told him that she did it. Kari and Sora hadn't woken up yet and if she didn't take the blame, Davis would have gone after poor TK. TK was watching, quietly laughing at the state of Davis' hair.

"I had to do something. You were getting on my nerves," she said.

"Oh . . . oh. This is on. This is so on. This is so on that it's on!"

"Uh-huh."

"I'll get you _so_ bad. This is war, women!"

Ken walked in.

"Ken, Davis is harassing me!" Yolie cried.

Ken looked at Davis. "You're whating her?"

"_Harassing?!_ You're the one that sent a squirrel on my head!"

"Something tells me I don't want to know,"Ken said.

"You don't," confirmed TK.

"Your all against me, aren't you!" Davis cried.

"Um . . . no?"

"That's right! Act all innocent, TK! You're good at that."

"But-"

"Eup! I'm watching you, blondie!"

"Sure, whatever."

Matt walked into the kitchen. "Why is it so loud?" He looked over at Yolie, Ken, TK and Davis. "Oh, Davis is up . . . what happened to your hair?"

* * *

Tai got out of bed by rolling off of it and hitting the floor. He sat up.

Dress.

He picked himself up and stumbled to the dresser. He open the draws and stared at the contents. Thinking his eyes weren't working yet, he closed it again. After a few seconds, he open it.

Nope.

He closed it again. It slowly dawned on him of what must of happened. He ripped open the draw and picked up a pair of pink boxers.

"KARIIIIIIII!!!"

* * *

Kari and Sora shot up from their beds at the same time.

"Uh-oh," Kari said.

"Kari, hide! I don't think he knows I was involve. I'll cover you."

Kari scrambled out of the covers and crawled under her bed. Tai's angry steps could be heard coming closer. He banged loudly on the door. "Kari open up!"

Sora climbed out of bed and combed her fingers though her hair.

"Kari!"

"Hold on, hold on." Sora opened the door. "What do you want?!"

"Where's Kari?!"

"I don't know, probably downstairs . . .Why are you in your underwear?" Sora raised an eyebrow.

Tai froze.

"Damn!" He rushed back to his room to get changed, but stopped when he remembered that all his clothes were _pink!_ He turned back to Sora who was trying not to laugh. "Tell Kari that she's _dead_," and then he went back to his room.

Sora shut the door. "Kari, I think you should avoid Tai for awhile."

* * *

Tai came down stairs, wearing his newly died clothes, more then one pair of eyes on him.

"Wow Tai," Matt said. "Bright much?"

Tai gave him a pleasant poisonous smile. "Whatever do mean, Matt?"

Davis bursted into the kitchen. "Tai!"

Tai sighed. "Yes, Davis?"

"You're wearing pink!"

"I know that Davis."

"But pink's a _girl_ color!"

Tai bit back his angry retort. He was not going to let whoever did this get the satisfaction of his embarrassment. "Davis . . . you see, since pink is such a girly color, only a man with great confidence in his manliness would ever dare to wear pink. Therefore only _real_ man wear pink."

"Really?"

"Really, Davis."

"Oh Tai!" Mimi, came running down the stairs. "Your shirt is such a pretty color! I think it matches my hair almost exactly!" Mimi began comparing her hair with his shirt.

"On second thought, Matt, you can just kill me."

Izzy came to the kitchen from the bathroom. From the _downstairs_ bathroom, Tai couldn't help notice. "Tai, are you wea–"

"Izzy! Just . . . shut up."

They eat breakfast, Kari coming downstairs last. Tai said nothing to her, but through out the meal, he made sure to glare at her.

"Hey Tai, could you pass the pink– I mean pancakes." Yolei snickered.

Tai almost threw it at her.

"Ok Tai, again, with the orange juice!" Yolie held up the orange juice that Tai had mistakenly given her again. "I don't know what fascination you have with the orange juice, but orange juice is not the same thing as syrup or pancakes! They don't even resemble one another!"

Tai got up. "Ok! I get it! I'm an idiot! Let's all make fun of me! Well, the idiot is leaving!" He stomped upstairs. A moment latter, he was back with a bag and heading for the door.

"Where are you going Tai?" asked Mimi.

"Away!" and he slammed the door.

* * *

As the day went on, Sora began to get more and more worried about Tai. The van was still there, he must have gone off into the woods. Eventually, Sora mustered up the courage to go look for him. She told Matt that she was going on a run, and grabbed a bottle of water before leaving.

She went on the hike that they went on yesterday. It was the only trail she knew of, and assumed it was the only one Tai knew as well. On the way there she even looked for the weird 'footprint' but couldn't remember where it was

She found Tai, sitting on the edge of the cliff, his bag at a base of a tree right next to him. His bright pink shirt wasn't hard to miss. "Tai?

He turned his head in her direction. To her surprise, he smiled at her . . . an almost suspicious smile.

"Are you all right?"

He pulled his legs up and sat Indian style. "Hunky dory," he replied.

"Listen, about the pink clothes thing . . .it wasn't just Kari. It was me as well. . . . and Yolie, but I'm the one that actually went into your room and stole your clothes, and I'm the one that wanted to get you the most. So . . .I'm sorry. Could you ever forgive me?"

Tai sat there for a second with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Sure, I'm not mad."

"You're not?!"

"Of course not. This," He took something out of his pocket. "This is worth it."

"What is that?!" Sora asked in alarm.

"I don't know," Tai unfolded what look suspiciously looked like Sora's panties. "I found them in your room. Weird, isn't it?" Some how, Tai had figured it out already. Apparently he wasn't as stupid as he looked.

Sora's face turned beat red. "You give those back right _now!_"

Tai got up. Sitting down, his head would be in the perfect spot for Sora to kick. "I don't know, Sora. I think Matt might wanna see 'em."

She screamed at him and tried to make a grab for the panties. Tai pulled them out of her reach. Sora started beating on Tai, and Tai responded by laughing. He stumbled backwards into the tree, wrapping his arm, behind it. Sora continued to beat on him with one arm and try to reach for her panties with the other. She pressed her body up against him, trying desperately to reach the them, but Tai's arm was longer. Eventually Tai decided he had had his fun, and let Sora snatch the panties away. She smacked him one more time for good measure, before getting off of him.

"You are such an immature, obnoxious, bullheaded jerk!"

"Yes. Yes I am. Of course, dying all my clothes pink was at the height of maturity."

"I told you that I was sorry! What do you want me to do? Beg?"

"I kinda like that idea, but I'm glad that you did it. I'm glad that you're yelling at me right now. I've been thinking."

"Really now. I didn't think you knew how to do that."

"See this proves it. Why everything little thing I do makes you mad. _You're_ not over me. _You_ can't leave me alone."

"What?!" Her voice was about five octaves higher then usual. "What the hell are you talking about?! I never want you back, and I wish we were never together in the first place!"

"Really now," Tai said sarcastically, giving Sora a flat look.

Sora put a hand to her head, trying to calm herself down. "Ok, I take that back. We had fun together, but it just wasn't meant to be, ok? As hard it is to believe, has it ever occurred to you that maybe _I do love Matt_?!"

Love. She just said it. Tai felt like he should hack something up. "Fine," he said. "you two go off, make goo-goo eyes at each other. Tell the other that you love 'em. Then you guys'll break up, you'll find yourself a new boyfriend and then you'll go though the same exact thing with Matt as you did with me!"

"Oh, so I'm shallow? Is that what you're saying? Well, for one thing Mr., Matt it a thousand times better then you'll ever be! He's sweet, he's kind, he never harasses me like you do! Maybe, one day, we'll even get married."

Tai burst into a bitter laughter. "I'll like to see you tell that one to Matt."

"I hope you will!"

"I hope I will too!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"FINE!"

"FINE!"

"I'm going back to the camp where people like _Matt_ are!"

"Oh, so now Matt's a type of person!"

Sora ignored him. And abruptly spun around. The fast motion caused her to slip and a small scream escaped her as she felt herself go over the edge of the cliff.

"Sora!" Tai, desperate to catch her, leapt forward, catching her arm, but the momentum he used, sent him start to tumble over the cliff as well. With his other hand he blindly grabbed for the edge, catching one of the roots to the tree. The grab, stopped their fall abruptly and Sora's momentum almost removed Tai's whole arm off. He felt like he was being pulled apart, but he didn't dare let go of anything. Sora was screaming bloody murder now and Tai felt his grip on the root start to loosen.

"Crap. Um Sora, I think we have a problem."

"You think!? Oh my God! We're gonna die!"

"Ok, Sora? You're gonna have to grab on to my waist. I need my other arm . . .like right now. Can you do that?"

"I don't know . . ."

They began to slip further.

"Ok, ok, ok!"

She reached out to Tai. As soon as he felt her touch, he lost his grip. The arm that was holding Sora, whipped upward, barely getting a hold on another root. They slid farther down, Sora screaming into Tai's back. They stopped, with Tai holding on to two different roots with each hand, his face pressed against the face of the cliff.

"You still there?" he gasped, though the answer was obvious. Her grip on him was so tight that he could hardly breath.

Sora mumbled something into his back.

"Good." He looked upward. They were far from the top now. He thought that since now he had both his arms, maybe he could just pull them both up. "Ok, Sora, just hang in there right now. I think I have a plan." He tried, almost bursting a blood vessel in the process, and failed. He couldn't do it with Sora hanging off of him, and his arms were already tired. They fell back down with a another painful wrench to his arms, and another small scream came from Sora.

"Ah . . . that didn't work."

"Are you sure?" Sora asked sarcastically. "Because I thought for sure we weren't dangling for our lives!"

"Ok, we need a plan."

"Oh, you mean besides dying?"

"You know we wouldn't be in this situation ifyou were looking where you were going instead of tumbling over a cliff!"

"I wouldn't even be on this stupid cliff, if you hadn't scared me and ran away with out telling any one where you were going!"

"I wouldn't have ran away angry if you hadn't dyed my clothes pink!"

"I wouldn't have died your clothes if you hadn't been such a jerk and starting being nicer to me!"

"I wouldn't have been such a jerk if you hadn't started going out with Matt!"

"Ok . . . this isn't getting us anywhere."

"Your right, we need a plan."

"You already said that. What if we scream for help."

"No ones gonna here us from up here."

"Oh yeah. Silly me. We should do the much better plan of falling to our death instead."

Tai reached for the edge but couldn't reach it. "Sora . . . Do you think you climb on top of my shoulders and reach for the cliff edge?"

"Are you crazy?! That's will totally kill us! And what will you do if I even made it?"

"I was hoping you could pull me up, but you could always let me fall. It's you decision," Tai said wryly.

"I don't think I'd be able to pull you up."

"Yeah, we should just stick with the falling to our death plan."

"Ok, I'll try. But I'm afraid I'll hurt you.**"**

"Don't worry, just go."

Sora loosened one of her arms and reached for Tai's shoulder. His muscle was strained from holding them up, and she was hesitant to put even an ounce of her extra weight on him.

"Sora . . ."

She grabbed on to his shoulder, then with her other hand grabbed the other shoulder, using her legs to help shimmy her way up. Tai cried out in pain, and she tried to go faster, but pulling her knees onto his shoulders was a lot harder then it sounded. She almost fell but grabbed onto Tai's head.

"Sora hurry up!"

She reached for the ledge. She could just touch it.

_Snap!_

She grabbed on to the edge, as Tai fell from her knees. "TAI!" she screamed.

"I'm alright!"

She looked down and saw Tai, still hanging by one arm. Only one of the roots had snapped. Looking down, made her realize how far up they were and she froze in panic.

"Sora! Move!"

She snapped out of it and slowly pulled herself up. She turned around and laid on her stomach, offering Tai her hand.

He reached for it, there fingers touching before his strength left him and he fell back down. They tied again with the same outcome. Each time Tai's fingers left hers she thought for sure he was falling..

Tai was getting tired and tired. He thought his arms would fall off before the root really broke. He tried one more.

Sora grabbed onto Tai's hand.

His weight pulled her down, and she dug her toes into the ground. She couldn't pull him up with only one arm, so she took hold of him with two.

"Ok, I have you. Try to help me pull you up."

Tai slowly started to put his wait into Sora's hands instead of the root . . .

. . .until he saw her starting to slip forward.

He quickly returned his weight to the root. "Sora, you're slipping."

She wiggled back. "It's ok. I can pull you up. On three, ok?"

"Wait, Sora–"

"One, two,"

"Sora, you're gonna fall!"

"Three!"

Afraid if he didn't, Sora would just pull herself over the edge, he shifted his weight. He was lifted a little higher, but Sora slipped over the edge a little farther.

"Sora, if you don't stop, then you'll fall, dragging me with you and we'll both die!"

Sora's face was red from the strain. "I can do it."

"Just let me go."

"No! I'm not letting you go."

"Sora!" Tai's voice, that had started out ironically calm in the beginning was now panicked. Any second now, Sora was going to fall over the edge, head first.

With a desperate scream, using the last of her strength, she yanked Tai up. As soon ad his arms were above the edge, she grabbed on to his bright pink shirt and pulled him up over the edge.

She dragged Tai away from the edge. When they were a good distance away, she flung her arms around him and sobbed into his chest. They stayed like that till both of their hearts started to ease. For awhile, all Sora was aware of was a Tai's chest rising and falling.

She pulled away. They had made it. All of a sudden she felt giddy and started to giggle.

"Um . . . Sora? Are you alright?"

She burst into laughter and flung her arms around Tai again, who then also started to laugh. Tai wrapped his arms around her and she sighed with contentment.

Then her stomach did a flip-flop.

_Wait._

She pulled away, her face beginning to burn. "Tai . . ."

He looked at her with sad eyes.

"Tai, I'm sorry, but . . .I . . .Matt . . ."

"Sora . . ."

"No Tai! No! Why is it all of a sudden _now_ that you're . . . that you're . . ."

"I'm . . .?"

"If you had only listened, if you only cared, I wouldn't have broken up with you! But instead, you'd just raise your voice, or slam the door or . . ."

"Sora?"

"You're so stubborn, if you stopped to listen, just once!"

"Can I say something?"

"And besides. Me and Matt love each other. So just get over it!"

He kissed her.

He did it passionately, trying to put everything he meant in that single moment.

Sora did nothing. She just stood there.

He eventually pulled away. "I get it. I just wanted to do that one more time," Tai said with a smile. "You can continue yelling at me now."

She opened her mouth, but couldn't say anything.

"Ok then. I'm going back." He started walking in the direction to the camp. "Oh and Sora," he said over his shoulder. "Remember _I_ kissed _you_. If Matt's gonna kill anyone, it should be me. You're still clean." Then he left.

Sora continued to stand there. Tears welling up in her eyes. She hated herself.

* * *

A bunch of cards flew through the air.

"TK, you're suppose to bend _all_ the cards and don't let go of them or they go all over the place."

"Wait, do it again."

Matt shuffled a deck of cards, bending them like a bridge.

"I can't tell what you're doing. You're going to fast."

"Well, it's not like I can do it slowly. Then they're go all over the place like yours."

The door slammed open and Tai stumbled in. Matt and TK looked up at Tail, who was tired, and cover in dirt.

"What happen to you?" asked Matt.

"I'm taking a shower," was all he said. He started to head for the stairs, changed his mind and went to the downstairs hall instead. "Oh congratulation Matt. Apparently you're getting married."

"What?!" Tai went into the shower.

Matt stood up. _What?_ Where was Sora anyway. She'd been gone for a long time. He looked out the window. He thought he saw a bit of movement. He rushed out the door.

Sora was standing outside, covered in dirt, head down, covering her hands with her face.

"Sora, what happened?!"

He put his arms around her and she bursted into tears.

She didn't deserve Matt. She didn't deserve Tai. What kind of person was she. How could she not be sure who she loved?

She pulled away from Matt. "I need to be alone," she told him.

Stupid Tai.

She should just blame everything on Tai. He just made her confused. Everything will look better later. She went to her room and decided to take a nap.

* * *

Tai sat on the shower floor, clothes still on, cold water beating on his head. He ached all over. His arms still hurt, and his face was hot. He knew he was upset, so he tried to cool himself down with cold water. He heaved a shuddering breath.

Now what?

Nothing. It was over.

It should have been over since Sora had screamed at him that day, and said she never wanted to see him again, but he thought, she didn't mean it. She's come back.

It should have been over when he heard that Sora was dating Matt, but he thought, that would never last.

It should be over now. Then why did he keep thinking that he could get her back.

Because he was an immature, obnoxious, bullheaded jerk.

He smiled to himself. He tried to move his legs, but even that hurt. He was going to be so stiff we he finally got up.

_I do love Matt_?!

Did she mean that too? Tai could never understand Sora. She would say things were fine, when things _were not_ fine, and then when she finally says there's a problem, Tai would still be thinking she was reverse psychology mode and think she was kidding.

Stupid Sora, and her stupid complicatedness.

He wished things were back to how they used to be, when everything he said could make her laugh. Then he'd think himself super clever.

He missed there stupid arguments, that he would make last longer, not because he thought he was right, he was usually wrong, but because he liked to hear Sora's retort. She'd go and on about why she was right, and why he was wrong, but he didn't care. He just like to listen to her voice.

God, he even missed the embarrassing times when his mom popped in and asked Sora if he was being a gentlemen or not!

Life was so great back then. How did he mess it up so bad? How did it get like this?

* * *

Sora chucked a tennis ball at the wall. She thought of taking a nap, but she couldn't sit still. The force of the ball was enough for it to bounce off the wall, hit the back wall, then hit the front wall before she caught it again.

_Bump, bump, bump!_

It felt good, so she did it again.

_Bump, bump, bump!_

It made a lot of noise, but she didn't care. She decided she didn't care about a lot of things. Like Tai kissing her. _She_ let Tai kiss her. She didn't care what Tai said. It was her fault too. She was a horrible person. Letting some other guy kiss her when she already had a boyfriend.

_Bump, bump, bump!_

But she didn't care about that either. So what if she was a horrible person!? She didn't care. Did it look like she cared?!

_Bump, bump, bump!_

Ha! Tai thought she still had feelings for him. Ha! Ha! That's why she was picking on him. What an idiot he was. Yes, she had a feeling for him._ Hate!_ The internal burning hatred for that horrible idiot!

But since they were both horrible people, they'd both go to Hell and she would never escape him!

_Bump, bump, bump!_

At least Matt would escape. He'd go to heaven.

"Dammit!"

_Bump, bump, bump!_

She started throwing the ball at hyper speed.

_Bump, bump, bump!_

_Bump, bump, bump!_

_Bump, bump, bump!_

_Bump, bump, bump!_

Suddenly the door opened. Kari ducked and the ball sailed over her head, into Tai and Izzy's room. There was a loud crash and Kari winced.

_That's right ball, go into Tai's room. Break his stuff!_Thought Sora, though the thing that crashed was more likely Izzy's then Tai's.

Kari closed the door. "We'll pretend that never happened," she said.

Sora stood there with a somewhat insain looking smile.

"Sora . . . are you alright?"

"I'M FINE!" she screamed.

"Sorry," Kari said quickly.

"I mean . . . yes Kari, I'm fine."

"Um . . . ok. I'm gonna lay down for a moment though." Kari went over to her bed. Now that Sora was looking at her more closely, she could see that Kari was looking very pale.

"Are _you_ alright?"

"I feel like I'm going to throw up," Kari groaned

"Do you want me to get Joe? He probably has something."

"Yeah, sure."

Sora left and went down stairs, just as Tai was coming down the hall. Matt and TK were still sitting at the table.

"Matt, Sora," Tai said in acknowledgment.

"Tai, Matt," answered Sora.

"Sora and Tai!" Matt said notably more brighter.

"Um . . ." said TK. "Am I invisible?"

"I don't know TK, but I'm confused," said Matt.

"And I thought you were Matt and I was TK, but apparently we are Confused and Invisible."

"Tai," Sora said ignoring them. "Why are you all wet?"

Tai looked at her for a moment. "I took a shower."

No one said anything for an awkward silence. Then Tai tried to push pass Sora to get upstairs.

"Oh, Tai? Kari isn't feeling well. Do you know where Joe is?"

"He's outside," said Matt.

"Thank you, Matt." Sora said with a smile, and pushed pass Tai.

* * *

"Kari! Speak to me!"

"You're awfully loud, Davis."

"She lives!" he cried.

"Davis, loud." Kari put her hands over her eyes.

"Are you going to be alright Kari?"

"Yeah, I think I'll skip dinner though."

"Don't worry, Kari. I'll eat twice as much for you."

TK gave Davis a flat look. "Davis, . . . never mind."

"Thank you guys for checking up on me." Kari smiled up at Davis and TK. "I'm going to take a nap right now, ok?"

"Sure. Come on Davis. We should get to dinner." They left.

Kari stared at the ceiling. Once she got to sleep, she'd feel better when she got up, right?

But she was afraid to close her eyes. She didn't want to hear their voices anymore.


	7. Chapter 7 The Master

An: I found digimon shows on youtube! Good 'ol youtube. I was really starting to worry, about what i was doing. I was wreak. You wouldn't want to see it. But you know the one, The Master's Voice? Is that last part only released in Japan because I could only find it in Japanes, and I didn't remember it. Well now that's cleared.

I have a cold, my head is all . . .aug . . . and I don't jhave my friend to check this over, so again with the errors. People said I did ok last time, but I missed a coupple of words and contiued to spell Yolei wrong . . .stupid name

There's actually digimon in my story now. Oh dear. Are you guys ready? I ain't.

Chapter 7

The Master

Sora closed her eyes, her face pressed against Matt's side, her arms around him. They were sitting on the couch together. She should be tired. She almost had fallen of a cliff that day, and the night before, she hadn't gotten that much sleep either, but she couldn't sleep.

She didn't trust herself. She didn't like her dreams.

Maybe Tai was right. Maybe . . .

Thinking about it now, did she regret what happened back then?

Yes. There were so many things she regretted.

But she didn't regret being with Tai. There was something special when she was with him . . . but then it went away . . . and then _that_ happened. It wasn't Tai's fault. That was just the way he was. But she couldn't handle him forever. She needed someone to help _her_ for a change. That's what Matt did.

Matt was so sweet. She _never_ wanted to hurt him. Was she hurting him now? She could hear his heartbeat. She wondered if he was still awake. She did love Matt.

She had loved Tai too, but they had only winded up hurting each other.

Matt never hurt her, so . . . she couldn't be hurting him, right?

"Are you tired yet?" mumbled Matt.

Sora rolled over so her head was on his lap, and she could look up at him. "Why, are you tired?"

"No," he lied with his eyes close.

She smiled and reached up to touch his face. "Why don't you go to sleep?"

"I wouldn't be much company if I fell asleep."

Sora sat up, sitting on his lap. "So, you want to stay up?"

"You're just gonna have to find away to keep me awake. It's for your own good, you know."

Sora raised an eyebrow. "Is it now? I'm not sure what I could do to keep you up." She snaked her arms around Matt's neck.

"I'm sure you can think of something," Matt said with a smile.

She kissed him.

* * *

Everyone else was asleep . . . except for TK who could unfortunately hear his brother through the thin walls.

Sometimes, TK would think his brother was so cool, but when he was with Sora, he acted stupid. TK sighed.

He tried to get to sleep, but every time he was almost there, he was woken up by a burst of giggles.

He sat up. "Davis, are you awake?" He couldn't see how anyone could sleep through that.

He heard a groan, but nothing else.

TK pressed a pillow against his head. He vowed, when and if he ever got a girlfriend, he would act like a normal person. After a while of failing to get to sleep, he went rummaging through his bag, looking for a flash light and a book to read. Going through it, he found his digivice.

"That's weird . . . how did this get in here?" He found his book, and sat back on his bed to read.

* * *

Kari woke up with a killer headache. She looked around. Sora wasn't in bed. She heard a beeping sound. She knew what that was. She got up and ripped through her suitcase, picking up her digivice. She stared at it hypnotized, unable to look away.

* * *

Eventually, Sora and Matt grew quite. They either went to bed, or fell asleep on the couch. TK decide he could sleep now, but once he put the book down, he saw his digivice start to beep. He stared at for awhile, trying to figure out why it was beeping.

The air suddenly felt cold.

He heard a creek come from upstairs.

"Davis?"

More groaning from Davis.

TK got out from bed, his digivice still beeping. The room above them was Sora and Kari's room. He looked out the window. The wind was blowing the trees around.

Then he saw something fall right in front of his window. He jumped. Then he took a closer look.

He saw Kari pick herself off the ground.

"Davis!" he threw the book at him.

"What!?" Davis cried out, rubbing his head where the book hit it.

"Kari's outside!" TK said as he wrestled to open the window.

"Why?"

"I don't know, but she just jumped from the second floor!"

"What!?"

TK got the window open and swung his leg over it. "Come on!"

They followed Kari around the building.

"What's she doing?" asked Davis.

"I don't know," TK whispered. "I think she's sleep walking."

"Kari sleep walks?"

"I don't know!"

"Shouldn't we wake her up?"

"I don't know. I read somewhere that you aren't suppose to wake someone up when they are sleep walking, but . . . I think we should. She might hurt herself."

They followed her down to the beach. She walked pretty fast for someone who was asleep. Also her walk was graceful, not stumbling like a zombie. She tiptoed across the sand in her bare feet, till she met the water's edge.

TK and Davis caught up to her.

Her eyes were open, blank, staring out into the water.

"Kari?" TK tried.

"Kari wake up!" Davis yelled, giving her a little shake.

"Davis!" TK hissed.

"What? You said we should wake her up!"

"Well, do it gently!"

There was a sudden boom coming from the middle of the lake, and a bright light washed over them for a moment before fading away.

TK and Davis stood there, dumbfounded for a moment. Then Kari started to walk forward, her feet splashing in the water.

"Kari!" They both made a grab for her arms, but she kept going forward. The two of them put together couldn't stop her, instead, they were dragged forward into the water.

"Kari, wake up! What are you dreaming of, going into a pool!?"

"Davis, I don't think she's sleep walking anymore," TK said as her eyes started to glow yellow.

"AGH!" Davis cried, seeing her eyes, but he didn't let go of her.

They plunged deeper into the water, TK and Davis both trying to drag her back.

"Kari!" TK cried, as her head slipped under the water. Soon TK and Davis were pulled down with her.

Under the water, Kari didn't look like she was swimming forward, but more like she was being pulled by an invisible force, TK and Davis dragging behind her, stubbornly refusing to let go.

Both TK and Davis were starting to need air. They kicked and flared their free arms but they just sank deeper and deeper with Kari.

At the point where TK didn't think he could keep it up any longer, he saw Kari's hand glow, she was clutching her digivice. His began to glow too . . . and then . . .

All went black.

* * *

Davis broke the surface. "Kari?! TK?!" He took a huge breath and dived back under, swimming and far down as he could go, but seeing nothing. The water was to dark to see anything. He surfaced again. "On man, oh man, oh man. KARI!" He went under for the third time, but came up with nothing again.

"MATT! SORA!"

Matt shot up from the couch, knocking off Sora to the floor. "I wasn't sleeping!"

"Kari and TK and gone!" blurted out Davis, dripping water onto the floor.

"What?" Matt still wasn't that coherent.

"The light! . .. And the lake! . . .and the eyes! . . .and sleep walking! . . ."

"Davis, calm down," Sora said, getting up from the floor.

"KARI AND TK DISAPPEARED!!"

"What?!" Matt seemly getting it this time, got up, and ran to TK's room.

Sora decided to go upstairs to check on Kari, Davis following her. "What do you mean they disappeared?"

"Well, Kari jumped out of her window,"

"But Kari's on the second floor!"

"I know!"

Sora open the door to her room. Kari wasn't there. "Oh God."

"Then me and TK followed her outside, we thought she was sleep walking and she went to the lake and there was this big boom and light and then she dragged us into the lake–"

"Kari's in the lake?!"

"I . . . think so, but I'm not sure."

She had to wake up Tai. He'd know what to do . . . she hoped.

She slammed Tai and Izzy's door open. "Guys, Kari and TK are gone!"

Izzy popped his head up and stared at Sora.

Tai groaned and sat up. He had fallen asleep with his pants on this time. "I thought you said Kari wasn't feeling well. Why would she go off with TK for?" He fell back down on his pillow.

"Not like that!" Davis cried angrily. "She jumped out of her window-"

Tai bolted up right again. "She jumped out of her window?!"

"Yes! How many times do I have to explain this!?"

Tai glared at Sora. "You were there, and you didn't stop her!?"

Sora looked at the ground. "I didn't . . . actually go to bed."

Tai leapt out of bed and stomped over to Kari's room. As if he didn't believe she wasn't there, he yanked off the covers and even flipped over to bed to see if she was hiding under it.

"TK and me thought she was sleep walking. She went into the lake and there was-"

Tai ran out of the room, Davis tried to keep up and tell his story at the same time. Tai jumped the last half of the steps and headed for the door. Matt was soon following them. They sprinted to the lake, stopping at the edge.

"KARI!!!!" Tai got no answer. He started to dive into the water, but Matt grabbed his arm.

"Tai, they're gone!"

"No!" He turned to Davis, grabbing the younger boy by the shoulders and shook him. "What the hell happened to my sister!"

"I-I d-d-on't kn-kn-ow!" Tai threw him onto the ground. "Kari's eyes were glowing like she was possessed or something and something went off like a bomb from the middle of the lake. When she dragged us into the water, she and TK just disappeared."

Tai turned back to the water. "KARIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!"

Only his echo answered him.

* * *

"Everybody up!" yelled Tai when they came back inside. "Matt, tell everybody to meet in mine and Izzy's room."

Matt did so without looking at Tai, who stomped back up the stairs.

In his room, Izzy and Sora were staring at Izzy's screen. "Tai, my computer is acting strange."

"Izzy, does it look like I care!?"

"I think it might have something to do with Kari."

That shut Tai up, and he sat down next to Izzy. The screen had what look like waves of an ocean going up and down.

"Izzy, is that a screen saver or what?"

"No," he moved his mouse around. "I don't know what it is."

They stared at the screen for a while, almost hypnotized by the in and out of the waves . . .

Then the screen went black and the computer shut down.

"Izzy," Tai said in a light voice.

"Yeah?" Izzy answered nervously.

"I don't think it's suppose to do that."

"No . . ."

Tai let out a cry in frustration, and collapse onto his bed.

Everyone else began to file into the small room.

"What's going on?" asked Yolei.

"Are we playing a game!?" Mimi asked excited.

Joe looked at Mimi, then at Tai. Then he looked at around and noticed two people missing.

"Kari and TK disappeared . . . into the_ lake_." Tai mumbled into his pillow.

There was a lot of 'what!?'s and 'what are you talking about?!'s

Izzy got his computer to turn on again. "Davis and TK saw Kari leave the building like she was possessed, and there was a great amount of energy coming from the lake. Also, my computer is still acting weird. I think this has something to do with the digital world."

The room was silent.

Then, "But why would Kari just decide to go into the digital world?!" Tai demanded.

Izzy shrugged and began pushing the escape key, over and over again.

"Tai, I don't think she went voluntarily," Sora said.

"So it's like some one's kidnaped her?!" Oh man, he knew she wasn't feeling well. Why didn't he sense something was wrong then?

"Tai, calm down,"

Matt was strangely quiet. He kept staring out the window, where you could see the lake.

"I can open the digital portal, but it keeps closing on me. Also, I don't know how many of us actually bought there digivices," Izzy said as he typed away on his computer.

A sense of doom washed over the room.

"Has anyone have their digivices?" Izzy looked around the room.

Matt put a hand to his head. "Maybe." He left to check.

Tai started to bang his head to the bed post. "Damn, damn, damn, damn."

"You didn't pack your's either?" Izzy asked.

"No, Kari packed my stuff for me."

Yolei couldn't help but snicker. "Your little sister packed your stuff for you?"

Tai glared at Yolei.

"Well, do you think that maybe Kari packed your digivice?" said Izzy, tying to keep on topic.

"I don't know," he said, as he began going though his draws, pulling a shirt on, then dumping the stuff that was still in his suitcase. "Probably not." Out fell his digivice.

Matt came back in. "I got mine." Tai was staring at his own digivice. Matt sighed. "Are you coming?"

He got up. "Don't talk to me like that Matt!"

Davis shook Izzy's shoulder. "I want to come too! I can't just stay here, while Kari's in danger!"

"She wouldn't be in danger, if you hadn't let her walk herself into the lake!" shouted Tai.

"Tai, leave Davis alone, it's not his fault!" Matt cried back.

"Whose fault is it then, TK?!"

"You leave TK out of this!"

"I can leave who I want out of this!"

"Maybe we should leave you out of this!"

"Me? Kari's my little sister!"

"TK's my little brother!"

"Guys stop it," Sora said.

"Crap! It shut down again!" Izzy cried,

"What!?"

Matt turned to Tai. "We could have been in now, if hadn't made such a big deal!"

"You're the one that started it!"

"SHUT UP!" All heads turned to Cody who was standing in the door frame, not enough room for him to even come inside. "It's like watching a sitcom! It's painful!" For a moment, no one could say anything. They just all stared at Cody. They all kind of forgotten he was there.

"I got it back!" Izzy said.

Matt and Tai looked at each other. "Ok, come on lets go," said Tai. "Hopefully it'll just be a search and rescue mission. Go and get out."

"I doubt it," said Matt, but he held out his digivice to the computer, Tai did the same.

Matt caught Sora's eyes. She smiled. "Come back safe, kay?"

"Yeah, sure." She kissed him on the cheek.

Tai rolled his eyes at them and heaved an impatient sigh. Sora gave him a dejected look.

"Ok, hurry up, before the portal closes."

They disappeared into the computer.

Moments passed and nobody said anything, till Davis spoke up.

"Wait . . . I remember Kari disappearing like this some years ago. It was kind of like the same thing."

"What did you guys do then?" asked Izzy.

Davis tried to think. "I don't remember, very well. But back then, TK kept insisting she wasn't in the digiworld."

"What!?" Yolei shouted out. "You blockhead, why didn't you tell us that before!"

* * *

TK tried to open his eyes, but light shone in his face, hurting his head. He felt something nuzzling his face gently. First he thought it was the cat . . . till he remembered he didn't have a cat.

"TK?"

He rolled his head to the side, to get it away from the sun, and opened his eyes. Staring back at him was a pair of blue-green eyes.

He had to be dreaming.

"Patamon?"

Patamon stretched out his orange wings with joy, then with a flap, bounded into the air. "You're alive!"

"What are you doing here?"

"Silly, I'm a digimon. Where else would digimon, be but in the digital world?"

"I'm . . . in the digital world?" TK looked around. Behind him was the ocean. In front was a jungle looking forest.

"Mm-hmm." Patamon landed back on the sand. "You could be a little more happy to see me." His wings draped over the ground.

TK smiled. "I am happy to see you." He opened his arms and Patamon crawled in. "I've missed you." He looked down at Patamon. "Do you know what happened to Kari?"

"Kari? You're the only one here."

"What?"

"Yep," Patamon flew into the air again, gliding to the water's edge. "You came out of the water . . . all dead like." He landed and sat down. "It scared me." Patamon looked back at TK. "Are you ok?"

"Huh? Oh yeah. It's just . . . something's wrong with Kari. Something's-"

"Like last time?"

TK's eyes went wide. "Yeah!" He got up. "We have to find her!"

"But TK . . . we don't know where she is? She might not even be in the digiworld."

* * *

Kari pushed herself up from the cold wet stone. She couldn't see. It was too dark. She heard the sound of breathing, and squishing sounds coming closer. She clumsily got to her feet.

Where was she?

Stretched out her arm, she touched more wet stone. She leaned against it, trying to make her eyes focus in the dark. Her breath came out in gasps. It's ok. She'd just follow the wall, and it will lead her to the way out.

Pressing herself against the wall, she stumbled on. She hit her knees against what appeared to be a large rock. She was going to step over the rock, when she saw a pair of red eyes on the other side. She quickly curled up behind the rock, making herself as small as possible, holding her digivice close to her chest.

Then her digivice started to beep and glow. She silent wished it to shut up, to no avail.

The head of the thing with red eyes, looked over the rock.

_Queen Kari . . . She has returned?_

Kari screamed, and tried to crawl away, getting to her feet, she started to run.

_Smack!_

She ran into something hard, cold and slimy. It grabbed onto her arms and crowed, _She has returned to us!_

_She will become our wife!_

She screamed and squirmed out of the thing's grip.

_Wait! Queen Kari, come back!_

She tripped as something grabbed her ankle. She kicked out and made contact. She heard a cry of pain, and it let go. She tried to getup, but more cold, wet hands grabbed onto her.

"Let me go!"

All of a sudden, they screeched and let go, cowering away from her in fear. She heard a sound. It sounded like someone walking through mud, with a squishy sound as the put there foot down, and a small pop as the lifted it again. It came closer, and closer. There was a rattling sound too, as if whoever it was, was wearing beads. The air smelled like dead fish.

**Is this anyway to treat our Queen? **The voice was low, and snuffling.

_We're sorry, Master!_

_We just wanted to say, hello, Master!_

_Please don't hurt us, Master!_

The 'Master' looked around with red eyes as well, but he was a great deal taller, three times the height of a tall man. His eyes rested on Kari.

**Don't worry, My Queen,** he said as she felt something slimy wrap around her waist. She cried out in fear, till the tip of the tentacle pressed against her mouth. **Shh, Shh,**

And she was lifted off the ground.

* * *

"Hurry up Gabomon! I sense Tai and Matt!"

"Are sure, Agumon?" Gabomon asked huffing, trying to climb over the fallen tree Agumon had leapt over, sweat dripping from his blue striped fur.

"Yes! Yes!" Agumon jumped up and down. "Can't you smell a portal from the human world?!"

Gabomon sniffed the air. "It does smell salty, but I thought that was from the ocean."

Agumon burst out of the trees, and into the sandy beach, then stopped short, his sharp white nails gripping the sand. He stood perfectly still. The only movement was his nostrils flaring from the sent.

Gabomon waddled over to his side, lifted his nose and sniffing the air as well.

They stayed like that for about five minutes, not moving an inch.

Then, the portal opened in front of them, spilling out Tai and Matt, who landed on the digimon.

Agumon wiggled out from under Tai, and placed his large claws on his back, jumping up and down, his little stub of a tail wagging. "Tai's back! Tai's back!" Unfortunately for Tai, every hop, pushed his face deeper into the sand.

_Oof! Oof! Oof! Oof! Oof!_

Agumon stopped, and went around to stick his noise in front of Tai's head. Tai pushed himself up and wiped the sand away from his face. He looked up at Agumon's smiling face and grinned.

"Agumon!" He opened his arms up.

"Yay!" Agumon jumped into his arms, causing Tai to fall backwards.

Matt pushed himself up also. "Matt!" Gabomon said affectionately.

"Hey, big guy." Matt scratched the base of Gabomon's horn and he sighed with pleasure.

Tai pushed Agumon off of him and stood up, only to be brought back down to the ground as Agumon hugged his legs, making his knees buckle.

"Gabomon, have you seen TK or Kari?"

"Huh? No. We haven't even seen the other digimon either. It was coincidence I ran into Agumon. The forest has been unusually quite."

Tai got up. "Well, lets go look for them!" He started for the forest.

"Tai, Gabomon, says there's no one here!"

"Well, we won't know that until we look!"

"But Tai, there's a huge chance that TK and Kari are the other side of the digiworld! There's no sense in getting lost for nothing. We should wait till we get contacted from Izzy."

"Oh, and how are we going to do contact Izzy? If you want to abandon Kari and TK, be my guest!" He continued on to the forest.

"Tai! Don't be like this!" Matt went after him.

"Be like _what_, Matt?!"

"This! You're always acting like you're the leader, and bossing everyone around! If it isn't your idea, it's not a good one."

"What's that supposed to me? I'm just trying to find my sister! Maybe I should do it by myself!"

"Maybe you should!"

"Why are Tai and Matt mad at each other?" asked Agumon to Gabomon.

"Come on, Agumon! Don't talk to the enemy!" He dragged Agumon away from Gabomon.

"Oh, that's mature, Tai. Leave them alone."

Tai went on yelling at Matt, and Matt yelled back at Tai.

"Why am I not aloud to talk to you?" asked Agumon to Gabomon again.

"Apparently I'm the enemy," he replied.

"Oh." Agumon gave him a playful swat. "Take that enemy!"

Gabomon returned it. "And that!"

"Ow!"

"Oh! I'm sorry, Agumon!"

Tai grabbed onto the collar of Matt's shirt. "My sisters out there and she's sick with nothing but your gutless brother to protect her if she even has him at all!"

"_What _did you just call my brother?!"

"Well he couldn't stop her from going into the lake!"

"You weren't there! You probably couldn't have saved her either!"

"What do you know?!"

"A lot more then you do!"

"Matt!" Both of their heads turned to the direction to the new voice.

"TK?" TK ran into his brother's arms.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you!" Patamon flew up behind him.

Matt put his younger brother at arms length. "Are you ok?!"

"Where's Kari?!"asked Tai.

"What happened?!" asked Matt

"Were'd you come from?!" asked Tai.

"Why are you in the digital world?!"asked Matt

"Were's Kari!?" asked Tai again.

"Hold on!" TK broke away from his brother. "I don't know what happened to Kari."

"WHAT?!"

"Cool it Tai." Matt looked at TK calmly. "Tell me what happened?"

"I think something's controlling Kari. She was like hypnotized when she went to the lake. Out digivices were activating too. When we disappeared, I ended up here. Kari didn't. I don't know how I got here, but I think Kari's back at the dark ocean."

Tai kicked the sand. "Dammit!"


	8. Chapter 8 Searching

An: I proofread this half heartedly. I'm still sick. All I can do is type.

I'm really, really sorry for spelling Gabumon wrong. (laughs) I almost spelled it wrong again. Oh yeah! There's this guy, Nick Johnson he asked me five quetions but I can't answer him because he's not sighned in. So I guess I'll answer them here.

1What is the plot of the fanfic?

well you're gonna have to read the whole thing. Though it may not look like there is one, it's there.

2When does it take place?

That depends on how old the charters were in the show. It different in the us then japan I think. about 3 years after the second seires

3. What locations are being used throughout the fic?

In Japan, alot of it so far is at the camp that they 'supposely' went to in the second season that they told their parents when they actually went to the digiworld.

4Just how old is everyone that is in the fanfic?

I've mentioned this in my first authors note. I said Tai was 17, and the rest to do the math, but I guess I can figure it out, since you asked . . .Well that makes Sora and Matt 17, Joe 18, Izzy and Mimi 16 Davis, Kari, Ken and TK 14. I think Yolei's 15 and cody's only 12

5. Just how many Digidestined are there around the world in this fanfic?

I don't know. A lot if you count the world, but I'm only focusing on the main ones.

oh boy. I need another tissue. (sniffle)

**Chapter 8**

**Searching**

"I can't get the computer to contact Tai and Matt," Izzy said, hitting the same exact keys over and over.

"Move over," Yolei sat next to Izzy. They began to talk in computer talk.

Mimi quietly left, nobody noticed her return with her purse. She rummaged through it for a while, then took out a compact and lip gloss. She casually put some on, before returning it. Then she took out her cell phone that hadn't worked since she arrived. The bottons were glowing.

"Hey what's Matt's cell phone number?"

Sora looked over at Mimi. "559, 39412."

"That's what I thought." She began pushing the buttons.

"I don't think that's going to work," Izzy said. "It hasn't in the past."

Mimi shifted her weight to one hip as she waited for the phone to finish ringing.

* * *

_Be-be-beep! Be-be-beep! Be-be-beep!_

All heads turned to Matt.

"Matt, your pants are making noise," said Gabumon.

"And it's not my digivice." Matt took out his cell phone. "Um . . . hello?"

"MATT!!"

Matt quickly moved the phone away from his ear. "Ow . . ."

"It's Mimi!"

"Hi Mimi."

"How are you?"

"Ah . . . fine."

"Isn't it great? I can talk to you from all the way over here, while you're all the way over there, through are cell phones!"

"I kinda got drawn to the same conclusion as you, Mimi."

"Really?! Cool! Oh . . ." There were voices in the back ground before Mimi's came back. "Oh, yeah! Kari's not in the digital world!"

"We know that!" Tai said in frustration. He and TK could hear Mimi's voice from where they were standing.

"Hold on a sec, kay?"

"What?" Beep! Matt looked at his cell phone. "She hung up on me!"

* * *

"Ok, I have a map of the digital world, those three red dots are Tai, Matt and TK." Izzy said pointing to the screen. "Now I can't open the same portal, but I can open different portals at other parts of the Digital world. Tell Matt that the closest one is right here." He pointed to another spot on the screen. "But it's pretty far from where they are. Also, we still don't have Kari. I could try to make the portal take them somewhere else, but I don't know where Kari is. I think we should just bring them back until we can think of the next step." He turned around to Mimi. "Did you tell Matt all that?"

Mimi blinked. "Oh no. I turned the phone off."

"What?! Why?"

"I didn't want to waste minutes why you were explaining things."

"Well, call them back!"

* * *

"What do you mean she just hung up on you?" Tai asked.

"She . . . just did."

_Be-be-beep! Be-be-beep! _Matt turned the phone back on. "Mimi?"

"Ok, Izzy says you can't come back though the same portal that you got there with. You have to go to . . . that one!"

"What's that one?"

"The one I'm pointing at! Oh . . . yeah!" She started to giggle. "You can't see the computer! It–"

She was cut off and Izzy's voice replaced hers. "There's a portal to the east about . . . man that's a lot of kilometers . . ."

"Izzy?!"

"Well, it's gonna take you about . . ."

"About . . . ? How far do we have to walk?!"

"It's going to be a . . . three day walk."

"What?!"

"A lot of it is through dessert."

"Three days?!"

"Maybe more."

"Izzy, we can't stay here for three days!"

Tai looked up at Matt. _Three days?_ He mouthed.

"I'm sorry Matt, but that's the closet portal."

"What happened to the portal here?"

"It's like it doesn't exist anymore, Matt. I can't get it activated no matter what I do!"

"It's ok . . . but how is this going to get Kari back?"

Izzy was quite for a while, then, "It won't." Matt winced. Tai wasn't going to be happy. "But it's all we can do for now. I'll try to research what happened to Kari, while you guys look forthe portal. Ok?"

"Yeah, I guess." Izzy hung up.

Tai looked at Matt. "So what about Kari?"

"Izzy doesn't know yet. It'll take us three days just to get out of here."

"Kari could be dead by then!" Everyone winced at that statement.

"Izzy's working on finding Kari right now. By the time we get back, maybe he's already found her."

Tai groaned, and sank to the ground.

They headed east, into the forest. As they went through, they collected berries and nuts, shoving them into pockets so that they could eat something on the long walk to the portal.

"Gabomon?" Matt looked over to his digimon. "Do you know why you haven't seen any other digimon?"

"No. At first I thought we were just missing each other, but it's been awhile sense I've seen anyone."

"When was the last time you saw the others?"

"'bout ten days ago," Patamon said. "But _we_ all found each other," he said motioning to Gabumon and Agumon. "Maybe we _are_ just missing each other."

Pretty soon they were at the edge of the forest, stretched before them were miles and miles of sand.

"Sweet."TK said sarcastically.

"See that black dot on the horizon?" Matt said pointing to it.

TK strained his eyes. "No."

"Maybe it's where the portal is," Tai said, and he started onward. Matt followed him.

"I still don't see it," TK said.

"Come on, TK!" called Matt without looking back. His brother ran to catch up.

* * *

"They're at the desert," Izzy said. He pushed the computer aside. "Has anyone noticed Kari's behavior strange lately?"

Davis rubbed his chin. "Hmm . . . she kept insisting that she and TK were just friends."

"How, is that strange? She wouldn't keep insisting, if you hadn't kept asking if they were!" Yolei blurted out.

"Then, nope. Nothing strange."

"We all know she wasn't feeling well around dinner time," said Sora.

Joe put a hand to his head. "What are we going to do now?"

There was a beep from Izzy's computer and he turned his attention back to it. "I just got more than 80 emails!"

"From who?" asked Ken.

"I don't know. I don't recognize the address." He started to go through them. "They're all blank too."

"That's weird," committed Yolei.

* * *

Kari was placed on what she believed was a stone chair. The tentacle left her, a torch suddenly flared up, and Kari saw a long stone table set with plates and dishes. On the other end of the table was huge blue digimon . . . or at least she assumed it was a digimon. He rested his octopus shaped head in his many fingered hand. His other hand was just a tentacle. He smiled a huge grin showing sharp teeth. **Are you well, my dear?**

Kari nodded her head, her eyes wide in fear.

**I'm sorry we didn't get the chance to meet earlier. I am Dragomon.** Small tentacles that followed the circumference of his head, starting just underneath his eyes, wiggled as he talked. **I am . . . the Master.**

"Yeah, I kinda figured," Kari said with a nervous laugh.

Dragomon grinned back at her. **Aren't you hungry?**

Kari looked at what was on her plate. A dead fish stared blankly back at her. "Actually, I'm a vegetarian. Thanks anyway," she said, pushing the plate away.

Dragomon started to laugh, it echoed throughout the stone wall.

Kari laughed with him, not sure what else to do. "Ha! Ha! Ha! . . .ah . . . oh God," she muttered.

Dragomon stopped laughing. **What was that?**

Kari continued to laugh. "Oh? Nothing. Something in my chest." She pounded on her chest and cleared her throat.

Dragomon laughed again. **You amuse me.**

"Um . . . Thanks."

**I am sorry that my servants scared you so.**

"Oh yeah! Thanks for the help. Um . . . if it's not too much trouble, I'd like to get back to my friends as soon as possible."

**But My Queen, you have just arrived.**

"I thought your servants brought me here without your permission!" Kari was starting to panic now.

**My servants wanted you for their own selfish purposes, but Kari, I . . . I need you.**

Kari pushed herself to the back of the chair. She looked around to see if there was a way out of here, but it was too dark to see.

**You are so powerful. Together we will rule not only this dead dimension, but the digital world too. Be my Queen Kari.**

Kari got up. "Um thanks, but . . . I think I might be a little too young to be queen or get married of give power and whatnot." Dragomon no longer looked amused. "It's not that I don't want to marry you. Trust me. You're a good-looking guy." His facial tentacles wiggled at that. "But I'm not the Queen for you. I'm sure you will find a beautiful . . . blue . . . a sea monster . . . like digimon."

Dragomon sighed. **I was hoping you would do this willingly.**

"Ha! Ha! . . .what?" She jumped as she felt cold hands hold her arms again. "Wait! Please! Let me go! I'll pay you! I don't have any money on me right now, but it can be an IOU. I have this nice cell phone!"

The servants started to pull her away. She sank to her knees. "Please! Don't!"

**Take her . . . to the room.**

* * *

"Are we there yet?"

"Not yet, TK," replied Matt.

Five minutes later, "Are we there yet?"

"Not _yet,_ TK."

Another five minutes, "Are we there yet?"

"No!"

Yet another five minutes, "Are we-"

"No TK!" Matt threw his arms in the air. "Do you _want_ me to kill you, because I will?"

TK stopped, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Maybe . . . If it means I don't have to walk through this blistering hot desert anymore, yes. Please." Matt turned around with an exhausted look on his face. Tai kept going, Agumon running to keep up.

"TK . . ."

TK sat down trying to look underneath his feet. "Well, I don't know about you, Matt, but I don't have any shoes. I have blisters about the size of Japan!" Patamon sat beside him and looked up at Matt.

Matt squatted down in front of his brother. He took both of TK's ankles in his hand and lifted them up into the air, TK falling onto his back.

_Oof!_

The bottom of TK's feet were red and sore from walking on the hot sand. He put TK's feet down. "Your feet are disgusting looking, man."

TK grinned. "Thanks."

Matt looked over at Tai who had stopped and was impatiently waiting for them.

"I think I'm gonna have to carry you."

TK pulled his painful feet closer to him. "You don't have to do that Matt. I'm not a baby anymore."

"Babies aren't the only people that get carried . . . Girls get carried too."

TK glared at his brother.

"Listen, if you go on in the state that you are in, you will completely wear away your feet. You're already short as it is. If you keep going, you'll be so short, you'll look like an elf and people will start thinking you're Hermey, the elf that wanted to become a dentist! It'll be life scaring."

TK stared at his brother for a while, then laughed. "How did you come up with that conclusion?"

"Besides the fact that I'm ultimately brilliant?" He turned around and offered TK his back.

"Come on, TK," Patamon said. "I'd carry you myself if I was strong enough to digivolve." TK reluctantly climbed onto his older brother's back.

"Up we go, Hermey." Matt stood up.

"I do not look like the elf that wanted to be a dentist," TK muttered into his back.

Matt caught up to Tai.

"He all right?" asked Tai.

"He's fine. I can't remember the last time I carried you like this, TK."

TK blushed, trying to hide his face from everyone else. He felt pathetic.

Five minutes passed by.

"Are we there yet?"

* * *

After accomplishing . . . nothing. Izzy went back to his emails. "I guess I should start deleting these emails. They're just slowing my computer down." He clicked on the first email and was going to hit delete when Yolei pointed at the screen.

"What's that?"

Izzy looked at it more closely. "I think it might be an H." He looked at the next one. "E . . ." then the next one. "L . . ."

"Somebody write this down!" Yolei said.

Cody ran out to get a pen and a pencil.

"H, E, L, P, this ones completely blank. Then Q, U, E, E, N, another blank, K, A, R, I . . . help Queen Kari?"

"What's Kari the queen of?" asked Mimi.

"I don't know, but there's a lot more to the message. I wonder what will happen if I try to reply to them . . ."

"What do the other emails say?" asked Yolei. Cody returned with a pen and some scrap paper.

"Ah . . . The next ones just an exclamation point, then space, P, L, E, A, S, E, comma, S, H, E, space, I, S, space, W, I, T, H, space, O, U, R, space, M, A, S, T, E, R, period."

"Who's master? There are so many 'masters' out there to begin with!" Joe blurted out.

"Hold on," Izzy checked the next email. "Blank, P, L, E, A, S, E, exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point, . . . _exclamation point," _He sighed. "exclamation point,"

"You have to be kidding me!" Yolei exclaimed.

Izzy had his face in his hand as he clicked on each email. "Exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point,"

"Um Izzy?" Cody looked up. "I ran out of room." He held up the scrap paper covered in exclamation points."

"That's a lot of exclamation," Davis commented.

Izzy slapped his hands on the floor besides him. "Let's just assume the rest of these emails are exclamation points! Want me to try to reply to them?"

"Yeah, go ahead," Yolei said.

Izzy hit reply.

"What do you want me to say to them?"

"Ask who they are," said Joe.

"And where we can find them," said Ken.

"Um . . . ok," Izzy typed, _Hi, I'm Izzy. Who are you? Where can we find you? How can we get Kari back? _"How's that?" he asked Yolei

"Sure, just send it."

He hit send, then a window popped up.

_Your connection is unavailable._

"What!? But this connection goes directly to a satellite!" He went through his wires, making sure everything was connected.

Ken looked out the window. "Um, Izzy? Could it be the weather that's affecting the connection?" Dark storm clouds billowed over the lake and there was a flash of lightning.

Izzy went over to the window and banged his forehead to the glass. "Great!" He went over to his computer, closed it and started to unplug wires.

"Where are you going?" asked Yolei as Izzy started to head for the door, computer and wires in his arms.

"To get the connection back." He kicked the door more open with his foot and headed for the stairs.

* * *

Kari was thrown onto another hard chair. The room was small, with one window that showed the gray sky. Her wrists were tied to the arms of the chair. She struggled to no avail.

_Please don't fight us Queen Kari. If you leave with us now, you can help us defeat the Master,_ one of the servants said, sticking its face in Kari's. Its breath stank.

Kari brought her knees up and kicked it in the face. It fell back with a cry of pain, and the Master's footsteps could be heard outside the door.

The servants scrambled around, tying her ankles to the legs of the chair, and ripping the digivice from her hand.

"Give that back!"

They clipped the digivice on a piece of string and put it around her neck.

"Huh?"

Dragomon came into the room and stood before her. **Comfortable? **He grinned.

Kari glared at him. "I wouldn't be so happy if I were you. I have a lot of friends and one very over protective brother that are going get you for this!"

He chuckled. **Friends? You don't have friends anymore. There will only be you, me and our servants that work for us.**

"Try telling that to Tai," Kari muttered.

He held a bowl of water. Kari looked into it, seeing her confused reflection looking back at her.

**You will stay here. It is your duty as the Queen.**

"I'm not the Queen!" Kari cried in frustration.

Her digivice started to beep. She glared at it thought the reflection of the water. It hadn't help her at all since this all started. In fact it seemed to make things worst. She felt like she was being betrayed by it.

Dragomon started to chant something, he rattled his beads, and held up a fish skeleton, rapping it against Kari head.

Kari winced. Great. How long was this going to go on for? She wished she was back home. How come _she _was here? How come it was always _her_? It wasn't like she was any different then the rest of the DigiDestined.

She suddenly felt a warmth coming from her chest. A light came from her digivice, shining on the water, where it reflected around the room. Her eyes began to glow, and she lifted her head, feeling powerful . . . not fully understanding what she was.

Her bounds burned away and she stood up, staring at the one in front of her.

The Master bowed. **My Queen**.

The servants all around her bowed too.

She didn't remember who she was . . . but that seemed right.

* * *

Izzy stood on the roof of the camp, wind whipping around him as he held up his computer up in the air, trying to get some connection.

"Izzy!" Sora screamed up at him. "You're going to hurt yourself!"

"I almost have it!" He could see the little bars on the corner of the screen rise, barely. A window popped up.

_Your connection is very low_

But it's there, Izzy thought.

All of sudden, Davis was next to him. "Need help?"

Izzy smiled. "Yeah can you hold the computer up, while I type?"

"Davis!" Sora screamed again. They were all going to die. It hadn't started raining yet, but the wind was strong. She covered her face with her hands.

"Don't worry, Sora." Mimi said placing her hand on Sora's shoulder. "Boys are meant to be stubborn. If they weren't then the most impossible things would never get done."

Sora was slightly surprised that statement came from Mimi.

"They're going to get hit by lighting. I know it." Joe muttered.

"Guys!" Sora screamed at them again. "Please come down!"

Izzy sent the message. It was quickly answered by 80 or so emails. "Got it!"

Suddenly Davis slipped. Izzy made a grab for him but only got the computer and Davis fell over backwards.

Mimi screamed.

Ken, who was on top of the latter to see if Izzy and Davis needed help, had no time to move out of the way as Davis crashed into him.

"Ken!" Yolei screamed as she ran over to them. Not to worry about Davis now, was she? Sora, Mimi, Joe and Cody followed her.

"Are you all right?" asked Sora.

Davis opened his eyes. "I think so." He sat up. "That's the second time I've fallen from that roof . . . but this time I had something nice and soft to land on." He looked down at Ken, who he was sitting on and smiled down at him. "Thanks for breaking my fall!"

"Get off of me," Ken said through clenched teeth. Davis did so. Ken sat up with a painful wince. He was seriously thinking of killing Davis right there and then, the only thing stopping him was the pain every time he tried to move his muscles. Maybe he could kill him anyway and just ignore the pain.

Yolei suddenly threw her arms around his neck. "Ken! You scared the hell out of me!" she cried as tears slid down her cheeks.

Ken blushed.

Izzy climbed down the ladder awkwardly holding the laptop. "Is everyone ok?!"

Sora sighed. "Yeah, but for the record, you guys are all morons."

* * *

The sun slowly disappeared behind them, as Tai and Matt walked east. The temperature dropped rapidly once the sun was down. Matt felt like his back was going to break so he thought it was due time for TK to start walking again.

"Hey TK,"

He wasn't answered. As he listened more closely, he heard TK deep breathing. He had fallen asleep.

Wasn't that cute?

Matt let go of his legs and TK fell to the floor.

"Ow!"

"I'm done!" Matt declared. "He grinned down at his little brother. "Now you get to carry me!"

"Come on, guys," Tai said. "We have to get to the portal."

Matt helped TK up and they continued to walk, the thing they were heading for was getting bigger and even TK could see it now.

Patamon flew over to Tai. "Hey, Tai?"

Tai gave him a sideways glance.

"How come you're wearing pink?"

"I think it's pretty!" Agumon said, trying to be loyal . . . and failing.

_Oh God_, Tai thought. He was going to die out here, and he'll be wearing pink until the clothes finally rotted away from time.

Silence enveloped over them.

Then TK said, looking North. "Hey, what's that?" Patamon flew up to get a better look. "Uh-oh."

Tai and Matt turned their heads to look. There was what looked like a tan colored wall, stretching to one end of the dessert to the other. When they looked closer at it, they saw it was moving, and getting closer.

"Run!" shouted Tai.

A huge cloud of sand was approaching them.

A sand storm.

The started run.

Matt grabbed TK in one hand, Gabumon in the other. Patamon flew ahead of them. Tai sprinted as fast as he could, and Agumon hopped to keep up.

But the storm caught up to them anyway.

Tai grabbed onto Agumon and Matt pulled TK in front of him right before the sand slammed into there backs.


	9. Chapter 9 Sora's Story

An. This is actualy, the revised version of the chapter I put up last time. There was a lot of spelling errors and now they are fixed. I'm sure how this will effect the alerts . . . if maybe you guys will get an email and . . .it's the same chapter as last time. Sorry about that. And I don't know what will happen to the reviews . . . maybe they will get deleted when I replace the last chapter with this one . . .I hope not.

Well . . . this chapter was a big one. 13 pages istead of the usual 9-10. I wrote it like . . .super fast too, because my cousin was going to kill me if I didn't. But the problem with writing that fast, is the millions of type-os you get. And the unclearness . . .so I needed to redo alot of parts, then my teacher decided to give me three, THREE essays. I have finnished . . .one. I'm taing a break to fininish fixing this and now posting it. Course I'm still not sure how great the proof reading is.

There's this one part . . .kinda corney. . . . where I got from an episode (actually there are two) but the one with Matt, man did that guy talk fast. I kept having to pause then rewinding to catch what he was saying. It was annoying. Bla8, that wasn't there before.

Hahahahaha! what's so funny? . . . I don't know. I love both Tai and Matt so much that don't know who Sora can stand it. Therefore, I don't hate her. I know all you guys too. Come on, amit it. You hate her. hahahahaha

I should do homework.

Chapter 9

Sora's Story

Sand crashed all around Matt and the only thing he could think of was to protect TK. He clutched TK against his chest, desperate not to lose him.

They couldn't breathe. They couldn't see. The sound of the wind was so loud they could hear nothing else.

Someone grabbed onto Matt's arm. He couldn't tell if it was Tai or Gabumon. They were going to die. They couldn't survive this forever.

Then as suddenly as it had started, it stopped and all was dark.

Agumon was buried in sand.

He could see nothing.

He could hear nothing

He could smell nothing.

But he could sense up from down, and he could feel Tai's hand. Making sure, Tai was still holding on to him, he clawed his way to the surface.

When his nose broke free, he gulped in the cold desert air, and yanked Tai free.

"Tai, are you ok!?" Tai doubled over and started hacking up sand. Agumon waited until he was done. Tai rested against him, breathing heavily.

"Where are the others?"

Gabumon broke free from the ground, sand clinging onto his fur. He started to dig fiercely, then grabbed onto the scruff of Matt's shirt and pulled with all his might. It was harder than pulling Tai up because Matt came in a package with TK. The first thing Matt said when he had the air to do so was his little brother's name.

He pulled free TK's limp form from the sand, laying him on his back. For the briefest second, Matt was sure he was dead, but then TK started the sputter and cough.

Matt rolled back on the balls of his feet, face pointed to the sky. "Thank God," he sighed.

Once Tai saw everyone was still alive, he sank to the ground and concentrated on breathing.

"Wait," said Agumon. "Were's Patamon?"

TK shot up from the ground. "Patamon!" He called out. When only his echo answered, he screamed his name "PATAMON!"

"TK," Matt started, but TK took off, in a random direction, stumbling as he went. "TK, wait!" Matt went after him. TK didn't go far. He was to tired. He fell to his knees, hands clutching at the ground; a sob racked through his body.

Matt put a hand on TK's shoulder. "TK, come on."

" . . .TK." His head whipped around at the faint sound. A little ways off, a white dot lay on the ground. TK got up with a cry, dashing to it, kicking sand behind him.

He sank to his knees beside the weak digimon. "Tokomon!" Patamon had de-digivolved, his small white sides rising and falling.

"Are you ok, TK?" TK took Tokomon into his arms and stood up. Mat smiled and they went back to Tai.

Tai stood, staring at nothing. He didn't move a muscle. Agumon looked up at him, not knowing what else to do. Matt came up behind Tai. "Tai, what's the matter?"

"Where is it!?"

"What?"

"The black dot! The forest! Anything! Everything's gone!"

Matt looked around. There was nothing. The storm had carried them off course. They could see nothing but sand and the night sky.

"We're lost!" Tai screamed out to the sky. TK stared at them with red eyes, holding Tokomon close to him. Matt swallowed. What were they going to do?

"Matt!" Tai turned to him. "Call Mimi." Matt took a deep breath. Right. They still had the cell phone. He stuck his hand in his pocket, which was filled with sand, and dug it out. When he opened it up, sand fell from its crevasses. It didn't turn on when Matt pushed the button.

"Tai, the phone's dead."

"No!" Tai grabbed the phone from Matt, looked at it once, then threw it on the ground and stomped on it till it was nothing but tiny pieces.

"Like that's going to help," Matt muttered.

"What was that?!" Tai spun around to glare at Matt.

"You didn't have to break my phone."

"It was dead! You said it was!"

"Well, maybe we could of fixed it."

"How do you think we can do that?!"

"There's we just sand in it. Maybe we could of gotten it out."

"Oh that's a brilliant plan, Matt! Thanks for telling me that afterwards!"

"This wouldn't be a problem if you would stop to think about your actions, and ask others for their opinion instead of doing it right then and there."

"Well, it's better to act quickly then waste time thinking all the time!"

"Well, at least I know how to think."

"If you're so smart, what do we do now, All Great One?!"

"I don't know, I thought you were the 'leader'."

"_I'm_ going to find Kari!"

"We _all_ want to find Kari! It's not just you! This whole thing isn't about you! When are you going to stop being selfish and think about others for a change!? Do you know how they feel, Tai?"

"Apparently I _don't_, because _I'm_ too stupid to _think!_

"Well what if you try _asking_ them?! . . .Or taking a hint!?"

"I don't need to know what everyone else in the world wants!"

"Yeah, just like you don't need to know what Sora wants!"

"What?" Tai voice got dangerously quiet.

"She doesn't want you anymore. Start leaving her alone!"

_Wham!_

TK winced as Tai punched Matt in the jaw, sending him crashing to the ground.

"This has _nothing _to do with Sora! I don't want anything to do with her!"

Matt looked up Tai, a drop of blood running from his mouth. "Oh yeah, Tai? Then what happened yesterday?" He got up. "Sora came back _in tears_ when she was with you! What did you do to her!?"

"Nothing! You weren't there! You wouldn't have understood!"

"Yeah, it was a good thing I wasn't there. I'd probably kill you if I was!" he said as he tackled Tai to the ground. Tai rolled over so that he was on top, and gave Matt another punch to the head. Matt kneed him in the stomach.

Agumon and Gabumon stood next to TK. They didn't know what to do. The digimon didn't even know the full extent to the reasons of the fight. TK buried his face into Tokomon. "Oh man," he whimpered.

"I love Sora!" Tai cried when he was again on top of Matt. "I've _always _liked her! And when she was finally my girlfriend, you come along and take her from me! You were suppose to be my friend!"

Matt pushed him off of him, and slammed his back onto the ground. "I didn't _take_ Sora from you! She wasn't yours! You threw her away! And I would've been your damn friend, if you'd let me!"

"I don't make friends with back stabbers!" He flipped them around again, punching this time at Matt's side.

"Stop being so damn stubborn!"

"You've always been on my case, Matt! Everything I do is _never_ good enough for you! Is that's why you took Sora?! Am I not good enough for her?! Well I'm _sorry,_ Matt! I'm sorry I can't be cool like you! I'm sorry I'm not perfect! I'm sorry I don't have a band, or a million girls that want to be mine, or this apparent great compassion for others or always thinking of the right thing!I'm sorry I'm not you!" He slammed both his fist at either side of Matt's head.

Matt stared up at him. "You idiot." He pushed Tai away. Sitting up, he glared at him, jaw clenched as he tried to keep his emotions in check. "How can you be so freakin' _stupid!?"_

"What the hell are you talking about!"

"I WAS JEALOUS OF YOU!"

"What?"

"Dammit! I always have been! You have a family that isn't so freakin' messed up. You're mom cooked you dinner every night! You got to see you're little sister every day! You never came home to find your dad drunk on the floor!

"You also had a billion friends! People liked you! They listened to you! Even TK used to look up to you more then he did to me! You made them laugh! They _loved_ you! _Sora_ loved you!

"And when you lost her, I . . . the selfish, horrible, _disgusting_ person I was . . . was happy." His voice started to crack. "Because Sora was with me. She chose _me_ over you and I felt that I had beaten you in some . . .stupid contest!" Tears started to leak at the corner of his eyes. "I'm a horrible person, man. You _don't_ wanna be like me."

Tai got up and stared down on Matt. "If you're such a horrible person," Tai said, then swallowed. "Then why does Sora love you?"

Matt looked up at Tai, surprised that he would say something like that.

"She told me. But then again, I'm not very good at understanding people . . . and Sora's one crazy person to try to understand for anyone, but . . . I think she meant it."

Matt cracked a grin. "She's a wonder."

Tai looked out into the horizon. "Matt . . . I don't . . .know why Sora left me. I just assumed it was because she liked you better . . . but . . . is it something else?"

Matt didn't say anything at first. "She didn't want me to tell you . . . though a lot of people know. Kari might even know . . . but if she does, she didn't tell your parents or you would know."

"What?"

"Sora's mom died, Tai."

"What?!"

"That's why she didn't make your soccer game. She wasn't with me. She tried to tell you, but you were so mad . . .and she wasn't ready to talk about it. That's why she broke up with you."

"How can Sora's mom have died, and I not know about it!?" This was shocking. You don't miss something like that. How could Mrs. Takenouchi be dead? She wasn't sick.

"Car accident. Happens every day where we live, Tai. You stopped talking to people around then, remember? 'Sulking'?"

Tai felt like he was just stabbed in the chest. One of the most horrible feelings to happen to you, is to find out you've made a mistake, and it's to late to fix it., to realize he'd been acting like an asshole all this time, and not noticing. He wanted to start over, but he couldn't do that, so then he just wanted to die.

" . . .But Sora . . .she . . ."

"She's been strong, Tai. She acts like nothings happened. . . .it worries me."

"Man . . ." He began to laugh dryly. "I'm so stupid."

"Ah . . . yeah," Matt agreed. "But there's no sense in worrying about it now. . . we need to find Kari."

"Let's . . . rest, for awhile," Tai said., "Most people sleep at night-time."

"Well, that means you'll have to stay out here longer, stuck with your jealous-but-good- looking-ex-best friend and his annoying little brother."

Tai grinned. "I think I can deal with that."

"Are you guys gonna kiss and make up already, because I'm getting sick of watching you people," TK said with a smile. He felt a lot better, now that they weren't hitting each other anymore. It was like the only good thing that had happened in forever.

"TK, go to bed," Matt snapped.

* * *

"Ok . . ." Izzy tiredly looked at the paper he'd been writing the messages on. "They say they are in some dimension called the Dark Ocean. It isn't part of the digiworld, but it's linked with it. I never heard of this place before, so I don't know how to get there, but I think, if we could 'attach' ourselves to an email, and reply back to them, we might be able to find Kari."

"How . . .do we do that?!" asked Joe incredulously.

"Well you know how I can get you guys into the internet . . . literally? Then I could attach you to an email, but I can't do that unless you guys have your digivices so I have to wait for Matt and Tai to come back."

"Where are they now?" Yolei asked.

Izzy looked at the screen. The storm had lightened up some and the connection was back, though it would go off and on. "Whoa!"

"What?"

"They're _way _off course! Mimi, call Matt. I want to make sure they know they were going in the wrong direction."

"Um . . . Izzy?" Mimi tried after trying to call several times.

"What?!"

"It says this number no longer exists, please check to see if you dialed the right number and try again, so I did that and the lady said the same thing."

"That's not good. Let me see the phone!"

Sora chewed on the inside on her mouth and bent her fingers back nervously. It felt like one thing after the other was going wrong. She wanted the guys back _now_. She didn't know how long she could just wait. What if she never saw them again . . .just like . . .just like . . .

She tasted blood in the inside of her mouth and forced herself to stop chewing. She got up. "Excuse me," and she left the room, heading for her own. She'd get a piece of gum. She can chew on that instead of the inside of her cheek.

She found a piece in her bag and sat on her bed. Her fingers shook when she unwrapped it and stuck it in her mouth. If anything happened to Matt or Tai, she would hurt them.

She remembered the first time she met Tai. She wondered if Tai remembered. It was in first grade recess. She had ditched the other girls. Playing house all the time was boring to her. She saw him with a bunch of other boys with a soccer ball. They weren't playing very well, being only 6-7 years old, but it looked fun and she asked if she could play.

"But, you're a girl," Tai had so-charmingly said.

"So?" she had replied angrily.

"I didn't think girls . . .played soccer."

"I'll show you soccer!" she had screamed at him.

"Ok, fine."

She took off her hat, so that it wouldn't fly off while she ran and left it next to the goal. She had kicked the ball as hard as she had ever kicked in her 7 year old life, aiming at Tai more then the goal. It hit Tai in the stomach, sending the small boy crashing to the ground. As all his friends rushed over to see if he was ok, she felt a little guilty for hurting him. The rest of recess, she couldn't stop thinking about how she had hurt that poor kid. It wasn't till after the bell rang, and she ran to get her hat and put it on her head, that she forgot about feeling guilty, as something wet a lumpy mixed in with her hair.

She had screamed.

The stupid kid had thrown up in her hat. She didn't care if it was an accident, he could've told her, instead of leaving it like that. At that moment, she vowed she would hate him till the end of time . . .but that night something changed her mind.

She had seen him run out to his little sister when there were two giant monsters fighting outside. He had stayed there throughout the whole fight, even when rubble was falling all around him. It was either incredibly brave . . . or incredibly stupid, but nonetheless, she admired him for it. Maybe even had a small crush. A small one. One that didn't mean anything, especially at their age, but she made a point to hang around him a lot more. They soon became best friends. They were inseparable. They both signed up to play soccer. They invited each other to their houses.

Sora was a lot comfortable hanging out with Tai and his friends then the other girls. Sometimes the girls would make fun of her. She didn't like getting dressed up, her hair was cut in a boy style and even her name tended to be for a boy. Tai had defended her, said she was a pretty girl, that all the girls were just jealous. She thought she would marry him.

Sora laughed. She had forgotten she had thought that when she was 7. She grew out of it, though. Tai and her were friends. He'd help her when she was down, and then say something so stupid she wanted to hurt him. He was something. He'd do something so noble . . .then totally ruin it the next moment. He was her best friend though.

It was actually Tai who had introduced her to Matt. It was at camp, before they went to the digiworld.

He had said, "Sora, I met this guy! He's a little weird."

"So?"

"He's always sitting by himself. Maybe we should make friends . . . wanna meet 'im?"

She sighed "Fine." They had found him in the cafeteria, still finishing up his lunch. He was sitting with TK then. When Sora first saw Matt, she had thought his hair and eyes were pretty. She soon got nervous and wanted to get out of doing this. She had tried to run for the door, but Tai had grabbed her arm.

"This way Sora, he's that kid over there!"

"That kid?" her voice had sounded to high.

"Yeah, the blond guy." Tai sat himself casually next to the strange kid, Sora sitting on the other side of Tai. Tai leaned back on his chair. "Hey,"

Matt gave him a sideways glance. "Oh . . .it's you again." He didn't seem all that happy, and Sora wished again to leave.

Tai returned all four legs of the chair to the floor. "Yep." Then he said, "This is my friend Sora! Sora, this is Matt."

"Hi," Sora squeaked.

"Hi . . ." Matt said, as if he was unsure. Sora thought that he didn't like her.

Tai of course, was completely oblivious to this. "Good thing we found you! Now you're sure to be part of the _cool_ crowd!"

"Yeah," was all Matt said.

"Can I be part of the cool crowd too?" asked a small boy sitting next to Matt.

Tai turned his attention to him. "Sure! This crowd needs to grow!"

Matt turned away embarrassed. "That's my little brother." There was no doubt he wasn't. They had the same hair and eyes.

"You know what? We're gonna all be friends. And years from now, we're gonna remember this exact moment!"

"Um, excuse me." Matt got up. "Come on TK." They left.

"I don't think he liked me." Sora said.

"Of course he does!" said Tai. "He acts like that to everyone. You should have seen the way he treated me yesterday! It felt like he was trying to get rid of me."

Sora had laughed.

They had become friends. What happened to them now? She tried to remember where that had gone wrong.

She guessed she didn't realize it right away . . . when Tai started to like her. She didn't notice it at first. Then when she suspected he might, she wasn't sure. He was never serious, and she never knew if he meant it or not . . . and she started to develop a crush on Matt.

Of course, she never thought Matt would ever like her back. He was always so calm and cool. He was hard to be with. Tai was so easy to be with. She secretly wished Tai _did_ like her. That way, she's know she'd have somebody. Though they fought all the time, they had always made up.

But . . . Matt wasn't scary forever. She started to understand Matt. Matt was having problems with his mother . . .just like her. Matt could understand her when they talked. It had been him that had gotten her out of that black hole when they were in the digiworld. They were all spilt up, like they were now. It felt like they would never find the others. TK, repeatedly asking if they would find the others over and over wasn't helping either. When they found Matt's boat and not Matt, things were hopeless. Sora couldn't help but think, maybe he was dead.

She didn't actually remember falling though the hole. She was to worried about failing to find the others. She didn't think the digiworld could do that . . . create darkness with your feelings.

She was alone.

But then Matt and Joe were there.

"Sora! Matt and I are right here!" That was Joe's voice. "Look at me! Focus!"

"Joe you're really here. I can't believe it. And Matt's with you too." It felt like a dream.

"Just relax, everything's gonna be ok now." Matt's voice was so comforting, she was afraid she would burst into tears.

"I'm afraid not. I haven't been trying hard enough. I have to get to Tai right away and help him fight, because if I don't, the world will be destroyed."

"Sora, come on. You can't be responsible for saving the world!" Joe said.

"You have to realize how strong your negative feelings are. They produce a powerful destructive energy. Sora, it's the darkness in your heart that has created the cave in the first place, don't you get it?"

"Really, Matt? Is that true? Is that why you told TK not to be scared?"

"Sora, listen to me. There's only one way to make this cave disappear. You've got to reach deep into your heart! And erase all the negative feelings!"

"I don't know if I can!" She felt like she was floating in a dark nothingness. How did she get here? "What should I do?"

"You have to find the answer to that question on your own. Sora, this isn't the kind of thing you do just because you have to. If you're going to do it then it has to be because you want to."

"You mean that I don't have to do it if I don't want to?"

"Right! It will only work if you want to do it!"

"I'm confused. How will I know what the right thing to do is?"

"When this whole thing started do you think we had any idea what the right thing to do was? Of course not! But that didn't stop us, did it? Maybe we're here for a reason. Maybe we're the only ones that can do it," Joe had said then.

It was like the two of them were glowing in the endless sea of dark."We're the only ones that can make a difference," she said to herself.

"It's working Matt! I think we're finally getting through to her."

"We're the only ones. That's why we're here!" They were only things that made sense, so she grabbed on to them. Touching them she was all of a sudden back in the cave.

"Huh?" She laughed. "I get it now! You were right Matt. How did you know?"

He pulled her up. "I kinda went through the same thing myself."

Matt had understood. Matt knew how she felt. He was there for her. She really wanted to be with him more . . . but she would always stop herself. Because she knew that Tai liked her. She didn't want to hurt him. Then, she was pretty sure that she wanted to be with Matt. Tai was like a brother to her . . . right? Besides, he was never serious; she couldn't handle him forever.

That one day, at Matt's concert, she had baked him cookies for a Christmas present. At the end of the concert, she was going to tell Matt she liked him. She was so nervous that she hesitate going in to see him.

But then blasted Tai had to come along . . .

"Sora, wait up!"

"Oh Tai." She tried to hide the box, but really couldn't. Gabumon had then opened the door and Agumon had smelled out the cookies.

"Matt's busy getting ready, but I can take those to him," Gabumon had said. Then Biomon accused that he'd eat them all, but Sora wasn't listen. She was more aware of the way Tai was looking at her.

"So um . . .Sora, you going to the concert with anybody? I mean, not that it matters to me . . .uh, just wondering." It must of taken him so much courage just to ask that.

"No, I want to be available just in case Matt is free afterwards." She let out a small laugh. Trying to show that she didn't mean to hurt him, but wanting him to know that she wanted to be with Matt.

"Oh . . . I see. Matt huh?"

She made a noise that was suppose to be a 'yes,' but he sounded so hurt the words didn't come out right. . . .and then he completely surprised her.

"It's ok."

"You're not mad at me, Tai?"

"No, uh, of course not. Now get in there and say hi to Matt for me!" He pushed her into the door.

"The least you could do is leave us the cookies!" cried Agumon.

"I'll tell you what, I'll make some special ones for you."

"I'll be waiting. Thanks," Tai answered quietly.

He had surprised her then. She never thought he could be so understanding. Just for that, she decided on holding off on telling Matt she liked him. Not that she could. An evil digimon had destroyed the concert, and made them a little busy.

Afterwards though, she did hang out with Matt a lot more. She quit playing soccer a while ago. She and Matt would just hang out, watch movies, eat snacks, talk. She never felt like she would have a real chance with him. He had so many fan girls that were _way _prettier then her.

Then Matt had bought home that newspaper . . .

She could tell he was angry when he invited her over. When he had let her into his house he stomped into his kitchen then came back.

"Don't get mad," he said.

Sora nodded, confused.

"Ok." He brought Sora to the kitchen table and showed her the picture on the newspaper. It was one of them walking down main street. The heading said, "Young Rock Star Finds Young Love." Sora looked over at Matt, who was making a face at the heading.

"It's ok, Matt. It's publicity. People won't take it seriously."

He laughed. "Yeah. It's not like . . . we're really going out."

"Of course not."

"We're friends."

"Yep."

"Listen Sora . . ." Matt looked away. "I'm going away."

"What? Where? When? Why?"

"I have this . . .tour thing . . . with the band. I'm gonna be gone for a while."

"Oh."

"Sorry."

Sora's cell phone started to ring. She sighed and picked up.

" . . . I'm at Matt's . . . No . . . Mom _no!_ I already said I wasn't going to volunteer for that thing! No . . . No . . . . Fine." She got off the phone. "I have to go." Her mom had gotten a new boyfriend, and she always tried to get Sora to do things with him. Sora was set on treating him about as well as dirt. He wasn't going to turn into _her_ father. He was just some dirt bag that had fancied her mother. No matter how hard she'd try to tell her mother he was a pervert, she wouldn't listen to her. She had been without Sora's father for too long.

"Yeah, sure." He led her to the door. "See ya, Sora." He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, then closed the door.

Sora stood there. It took her a while to move, and when she did, she was late, her mom was angry.

That was the first time a boy ever kissed her. Then that boy went away. . . for almost a year. He had probably met a dozen girls by now. He couldn't stay single forever. She was miserable. Her mom tried to make her do things, but she didn't understand that Sora didn't like shopping for shoes, or painting her nails, or gardening. She was so lonely.

Then Tai called. "Sora! Wanna go to this soccer game?" His voice had startled her, she almost dropped the phone.

"Um . . . ok."

At the game, Tai talked excitedly about how this team was better then the other because so or so couldn't kick and this one was a terrible goalie. Being with Tai was such a relief after spending all those weeks in her room. She had forgotten how much she had missed him.

"What makes this team so special?"

"What kind of question is that?!"

"Well, it's a game, each team has a chance to win."

"Except in this game."

"I bet your team's gonna lose."

"Fine! Let's make it a bet!"

"Ok then. What are we betting?"

"Whoever wins can make the other person do whatever he or she wants."

"Fine, but nothing illegal."

"And we can't tell the other person what it is till the bet is over."

"Deal."

Sora had lost. She wasn't that surprised. The only reason why she rooted for the other team was because Tai didn't like them.

"Fine, what do I have to do?"

"You . . . have to let me kiss you."

"What?"

He pressed his lips against hers. Her heart fluttered with the excitement of her first real kiss and then he pulled away.

She turned the other direction, her face red. "That could be considered illegal," she muttered.

"How?"

"It was unwanted physical contact and I could charge that as sexual harassment," she said, crossing her limbs and sticking her nose up in the air.

" . . . Oh. Fine. That one doesn't count. I'll make you do something else. Go out with me."

"Fine."

"Really?"

"Yes, really! I lost the bet, didn't I?"

"You're not going to turn that into something illegal, too?"

"It won't be illegal if you don't turn it into something illegal."

"I thought that you were all about Matt."

"Did you!?"

"Are you sure you're not going make this into a 'This is against my will. You can't force me to do this' kinda thing?"

" Well maybe I want to go out with you!"

"I didn't . . ."

"Well now you know!"

"Friday, then?"

"Sure, call me!" She got up and stomped off home.

She went out with him. Then she did it again, and again and again. She had fallen in love with him. It was like how they were when they were little. They'd play, fight, argue, and Sora loved it all.

Then one night, "He's staying here?!"

"Sora, it's only going to be for a couple of weeks," Sora's mom had said.

"I can't live with him that long! I hate him!"

"Sora, be fair."

"It wasn't fair that you didn't ask me if I thought it was ok that you start dating him!"

"Sora, he's staying here and that's final!"

"Fine, if you love _him_ more than me, I'll leave!"

"Sora!"

She ran out the door and into her mother's boyfriend. "Sora," he said, raking his eyes over her. "You're looking good today."

"Get away from me," she said and she ran away.

The first place she went to was Tai's apartment. She didn't really know what she was doing there, I she rung the doorbell and chewed on the inside of her mouth, but when Tai answered the door, she flung herself onto his chest and cried.

Tai had stood there, and let her cry until eventually she had calmed down enough to come in, and they sat in his room.

She told Tai everything.

"I hate him, Tai, one time I even saw him going through my bedroom drawers!"

"Did you tell your mom?"

"Yeah, but she said she had asked him to get something from _her_ room, and he must have gotten ours mixed up. She never takes me seriously, or asks how I feel about things." She sighed. "I don't want to go back."

"You could sleep with me."

"What?"

"I mean--!" Tai face turned red. "I mean sleep here! Not here, here, but like in Kari's room or something! Stay here. That's it. You can stay here."

"Will your parents mind?"

"Naw, Kari's at a sleep over, so we can have one of our own. We used to do it all the time when we were little."

"But we were little then."

"Watch, my parents will be fine with it." They left his room. "Stay here," He left Sora in the hall and went into the kitchen. Sora peaked from behind the wall. His dad was at the table and his mom was making dinner.

"Hey, can I invite Sora to sleep over here tonight?"

"Uh-huh," His dad muttered, looking at a newspaper. His mom, on the other hand dropped a plate, causing his father to look up.

"Sora's the girl," his mother whispered.

"Sora's a girl? Oh! Then . . .well . .."

His mother started to pick the shattered pieces muttering, 'oh dear' over and over.

"Son," Tai's father motioned him over to sit in front of him. Tai did so hesitantly; this wasn't going to be good. "There comes a time in every man's life . . . when he . . ." His father tried to think of the right word. Tai sat there with a what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about look on his face. " . . . has _desires_ . . . to sleep with a woman."

"_DAD!_" Tai said between his teeth. "She's right there!" He pointed to the hallway, then clunk his head onto the table.

"Oh . . . hi there, Sora!"

Sora waved back.

"I meant stay in Kari's room," Tai said. "We used to do it all the time when we were little."

"But it was cute when you were little." Tears started to well up in his mothers eyes. "I still have those pictures of you guys in your little PJs! How did you get so big!" She started to cry.

"Uh . . . yeah. Can Sora stay in Kari's room? She's not using it.

"Is it ok with her mother?"

Sora nodded quickly to Tai.

"Yeah?"

"Ok . . . then. Sora, do you like liver sticks?"

"I'd love some, Mrs. Yagami."

When they left to wait for dinner to be ready they could still hear Tai's parents. "How could you not remember who Sora is!"

"He's not the weird kid with the computer?"

"That's Izzy. This is a sure sign that you aren't enough of a part of Tai's life!"

"He's a teenager, he doesn't want me to 'be part of his life'!"

Sora giggled and Tai brought her to his room.

"I don't know if you're gonna like Mom's liver sticks."

"I'll stomach them." She smiled.

"Listen . . . you know since . . . we've been . . ." Tai stopped and Sora wasn't sure if he'd finished. " . . . going out together . . .a lot, I was wondering . . .if . . . you'd want . . ." then in the smallest of voices that Sora almost didn't catch it. " . . . to be my girlfriend."

Sora flung her arms around him. "Yes!" Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Tai stopped breathing for a second, then he put her arms around her. They stayed like that for a while, until Tai heard foot steps outside his room, and pushed Sora away. They waited, but no one came to the door.

Then Tai turned to Sora. "Really?"

"Really."

"Because I don't want you to change your mind when Matt comes back. I don't think I could let you go again."

"Tai, Matt has his own fan club. It's not like we'll ever be together . . . I promise I won't go back to him. . .and besides, . . . I really, _really_ like being with you."

"Yeah . . . I'm pretty cool like that. I'm the _King_ of the 'cool crowd'. You wanna be the queen?"

She kissed him. "What's Matt?"

"Huh . . ." Tai was a little taken aback from the kiss. "Oh, he can be the King's right hand man."

Sora kissed him again

"and TK . . .well he can be the dog."

He kissed her back.

Suddenly the kisses got deeper, and Tai's hands went to Sora's back . . .

Then the door flung open, "Dinner's ready!" Tai's mom exclaimed.

Tai whipped around, "Is it?" his voice cracked. "I was just showing Sora my room!"

"Yeah," Sora said. "I haven't been here in a while and I forgot what it looked like."

"Well, Tai's room hasn't changed much. He still has the same junk from forever ago. I told you to clean this room weeks ago!" She left.

Tai stared at the empty doorframe and Sora laughed at his expression.

Sora was in love with him then. She might have been in love with him when he had first accused her of being a girl in the first grade. She forgot she had. How could she have forgotten?!

For awhile Tai and Sora were happy together. They did fight a lot . . . over stupid things . . . sometimes they would forget what it even was they fought about, and still they wouldn't forgive each other. But eventually, one of then would give in. Sora would either just say she was sorry, or Tai would find her, bringing flowers, crash to his knees ans scream "Forgive me!" causing people to stare at them, and the whole thing would makes Sora crack up into laughter. Tai had a talent of doing that. He could always make Sora laugh.

Life got better for her. Her mother broke up with her boyfriend when she found him cheating on her, but she was still dating and Sora was still not that close to her. She spent most of her time with Tai.

"Matt's coming back soon," Tai said.

"Really?" Sora smiled. "Is the 'cool crowd' gonna get back together?"

Tai gave a half hearted smile. "He's going to have a concert here."

"Great! Wanna go out with me?" Sora said playfully. "I just heard there's going to be this _concert_. They say it's very good. It came from a very _reliable_ source."

"Sora, I have a game that night," Tai said, not playing along. "It's the most important one of the season."

"Oh. . . . Well Matt will understand."

"You can go to the concert without me."

"No, why would I go to a concert without a date? I'll go to your game."

"Really?" She could tell that this really meant a lot to him.

"Of course! This is a very important game. All concerts are the same, and besides, we can go together when Matt plays again."

"Thanks, Sora." He kissed her.

But . . . they had gotten into a fight.

Sora couldn't even remember what is was about . . . It was the kind they had all the time, but they didn't speak with each other for days . . . which was unusual. Tai's game was slowly approaching and Sora had always planned on going, even if they hadn't forgiven each other then. A fight wouldn't make her miss it . . . apparently Tai didn't understand that.

Sora's mom was hit by a car on the day of Tai's game.

She never made it.

Tai had thought she'd had missed the game because of the fight. He thought that she was cruel enough to go to Matt's concert. It must've killed him inside when he thought of that. She tried to call him, but he wouldn't answer her phone calls.

When her mom finally died, and told Sora she loved her one last time, Sora broke.

She hated herself for not spending more time with her mother. She felt so alone. Her grandparents took her in, but they were so deep in mourning they didn't talk to her.

She desperately needed someone to comfort her. She wanted her mother to tell her everything was all right, she wanted Tai to hold her, but her mom was gone . . .Tai wasn't.

She went over to his home and rang his doorbell. When he answered he almost slammed the door in her face.

"Tai, wait!" she sobbed. But when he did, she couldn't speak, she was too upset.

"Listen Sora, I loved you, but apparently you only with me to spend the time until Matt came back! You promised, _you promised_ you wouldn't go back to him! I can't believe you'd ditch me to see Matt's concert because of a stupid fight!"

"I didn't mean to miss the game," she choked. She tried to continue, but her throat closed up.

Tai spat, "Go cry to Matt. He's the one you like," and he slammed the door.

Sora stood there, eyes wide. An anger gave her the power to speak when she couldn't a few moments before. She kicked and screamed at the door. "Fine, Tai! I hate you! I never want to see you again! We're over!" And she ran.

The door behind her opened and she heard Tai faintly. "Wait, I'm sorry!"

But she didn't wait. She ran harder.

She was alone again.

She ran to the park and eventually she fell down. She cried in the dirt.

She had lost her mommy . . . and no one seemed to care.

"Sora?" She looked up to see Matt standing above her. "Are you ok?"

Matt! Her first thought was to run away. She was in love with Tai. . . .no, wait; Tai didn't care. She hated Tai, remember? She had said that.

Matt bent down in front of her, placing a hand on her red, tear-stained cheek. "Are you hurt?" he asked, and she could not look away from his blue eyes.

She started seeing Matt again. At first, she told herself it would just be a little while, until she got things settled with Tai . . . but Tai never called her . . . and Matt seemed to understand her more then anyone.

When she was at his house, she mostly talked about Tai.

"If you guys fought all the time, why were you going out with each other?" Matt asked.

Sora thought about it for awhile. "I don't know . . . I don't know anything anymore." She held a tissue up to her face, in case she started crying again. She'd done that a lot. It was pathetic.

"Sora . . . I don't like it . . . when Tai makes you cry, so . . . don't think about it, kay? Think about happy things . . . like unicorns or something."

"Unicorns, huh?"

"Don't girls like that?"

"Why, did you get me one?"

"Want one?" he asked.

"Sure, what the hell. It can carry me around when I get too depressed to remember how to walk."

The next day, Matt bought her a stuffed unicorn. On the tag it said, 'Be happy'.

"I can't believe you got me a unicorn! I thought they didn't exist."

"It was looking sad in the window at the store. It reminded me of you because you're always sad, the unicorn was sad, I was sad. There was whole lot of misery."

"You were sad, Matt? Why?"

"Um . . .well I couldn't be happy if you weren't . . .I couldn't do that."

Sora smiled. "That's sweet." She kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you."

Matt . . . did nothing at first. Then he kissed her back, surprising Sora.

She winded up staying with him longer then she expected. Tai eventually found out, probably from TK who had told Kari.

* * *

Now, they were both gone. Tai and Matt were both gone. They were both stuck in the digiworld. What if they never came back? What if they both died just like her mother? She didn't even tell Tai goodbye.

She rolled over, burying her face into her pillow. If they died, she'd die too.


	10. Chapter 10 Desert Attack

AN: I truting my cousin on the editing this time, so if there is any mistakes . . . blame her.

There are a cupple of things I'd like to mention. 1, I hate the name Darktyrannomon. Typing that over and over again killed me, so hopefully it's spelled right. There's a fight sene in this . . . with more then one of the same digiomn, so I'm praying it's not confusing. 2, I changed somethings. I thought long and hard about this but decided to go about it my way instead of the digimon way. a, The digimon don't scream their names when they digivol. it would be to hard on me and I didn't think you guys would miss it too much. b, they don't say the names of the attack that they're about to do. Come on guys, that wastes time, and energy when they're fighting. c. This is the big one, my digimon, bleed. Get over it. I noticed that in the show, they get scatches, but they don't actually bleed. Well . . . sometimes the scatches are red, and it is a kid show, so of course they wouldn't bleed. This fic is waited T, and I already have Tai swearing up a storm so I thought, why not. It's not that bad, trust me. 3, I hope I did the fight ok. When I was done, I was like, "OMG this is so cool!" The I read it and it was only ok.

Like my chapter title? I just thought of it up right now.

Chapter 10

Desert Attack

TK's face was pressed up against Gabumon's fur. They had all snuggles up against each other in the night, half asleep, searching for warmth in the cold desert air. They had all, unintentionally, pressed themselves against Gabumon and became a huddled heap of boys and digimon. Tai opened his eyes as the sun shown onto his face. He quickly moved away from the pileof beings. That was a little too close in his personal space bubble.

He looked at the sky. The sun was rising in front of him. That meant that direction was east . . . and there were supposed to be going east, but the sandstorm had made them go . . . south? So they should be going northeast. Yes, he was brilliant. He kicked Matt in the side. "Matt! Get up! I know where we're going! It's . . ." He spun around in a circle with his finger in the air, "that direction!"

Matt pushed himself up with a groan. "What the- How do you know?!"

"I have a mad sense of direction! Come on, come on!"

Matt put a hand to his head. He had a headache. He couldn't carry TK again. He pulled TK from the pile of sleeping digimon. TK groaned in protest as he pulled his shirt off.

Forcing his eyes open, TK glared at Matt. "What are you doing?!"

Matt ripped the shirt in half.

"Matt! That's my only shirt!"

"I'm making shoes," he said. He wrapped one of the pieces around TK's foot. "I'm not carrying you everywhere we go. What do you think I am, a horse?"

"I thought you were more of an ass then a horse," TK muttered, wrapping his arms around himself. It was still cold, and he felt a little awkward. "It's cold."

"Well, it's gonna get hot. Toughen up, be a man." They started off in the direction that Tai pointed at.

As they started to walk farther, Tai started to worry. There's was huge chance they'd miss were they were going anyway. Matt started to worry because he saw that TK's pale skin was beginning to sun burn and he felt responsible for it. TK would have been worried about something too, if his brain hadn't melted and shut off. They were all dehydrated. Juice from berries could only keep you alive for so long. The heat was getting to their heads.

Matt grabbed TK's shoulder making him stop. He took off his own shirt and gave it to him. "Put this on."

"But it's covered in your sweat!"

He took both of TK's shoulders in his hands and shook them. "Put on the damn shirt before I kill you!"

"Guys," Tai moaned. "Don't fight."

TK put on the shirt, if only to please Matt. "You know, this is just going to make you sunburned, and we'll both look like lobsters."

Matt ignored him.

Tai decided to make conversation. Maybe then they wouldn't fight as much.

* * *

Hours later. 

"Ok, who would win, Godzilla, or King Kong?"

"King Kong," Matt answered.

"What?! Godzilla would totally win! His a freakin giant lizard that destroys Tokyo and breathes fire."

"I agree with Tai," Augomon said, though he would probably agree with Tai no matter what he said.

"But King Kong got's thumbs and he's way smarter then Godzilla is. Godzilla's brain is about as big as a pea. King Kong's a gorilla, he's almost as smart as a human."

"But Godzilla can like, pick up a building and smash him with it. Like no matter how smart you are, the piano will still hit you . . .that's a saying, right?"

"No, no it's not. And besides, in that new King Kong movie, he took on three tyrannosaurus rex's and killed all of them. They're kinda like Godzilla."

TK tried to ignore them. Their pace was so slow, that even Tokomon's tiny legs could keep up.

"Ok new one, who would win, Barbie or Sailor Moon?"

TK smacked his forehead with his hand.

"Sailor Moon, no offence to Barbie, but all she does is put clothes on."

"Yeah, Sailor Moon fights evil or something. Have you ever seen how short their skirts are? Isn't the series suppose to be for little girls?"

"Yeah . . . they are short. . . . How do they keep them down while they fight evil at the same time?"

"Maybe they don't keep them down."

TK crashed to his knees. They were all going to die out here and_ this_ conversation was going to be the last thing he ever heard.

"We stopped moving," Tai said, as they all stopped behind TK.

"We did?" Matt asked quietly, open his eyes.

Tai looked at the horizon. There was a black dot . . . The black dot! He stared at it longer and it began to grow. Or maybe it was a mirage. It got closer and closer.

"Is . . . that a digimon?"

Matt took TK by the shirt and hauled him up. "We're changing directions," he announced and slowly turned around and moved away from the digimon that was running toward them. The other's did the same, but there was no way they were going to outrun whatever it was that were chasing them.

The footsteps of the digimon were loud enough to make the ground shake. They could here it's heavy breathing behind them.

"I think it's a Greymon," Agumon cried.

Tai stumbled and fell. Agumon stopped and turned around, prepared to fight the very large Greymon. The Greymon was even larger then the one Agumon digivolved to.

The Greymon stopped before them, lowering his head to stare at them. Tai pushed himself from the sand and watched the Greymon open it's huge mouth showing all of it's white teeth.

They were going to die.

By being eaten.

Tai could laugh.

Agumon tired to do a Pepper Breath but all came out was smoke.

The Greymon nosed Agumon away, making the small digimon fall over. The he stuck out his tongue and licked Tai once, causing his shirt to go up and his hair to stick up in even more odd places then it already was.

"Ew, grosse!" Tai said, covered in slime. The Greymon's tail started to wag, the wind rushing from it.

"Tai-Tai," came a rumbling voice from it's throat.

"Huh?"

"Don't worry, Tai! I'll protect you!" Agumon leapt forward.

"Wait!" Tai tackled the little orange dinosaur to the ground. He knew this Greymon.

_Tai was trying to keep everything cool. So far everything was alright. His Mom still didn't know that Kari was trying to keep _that thing_ in the house. He didn't know how long he could keep this up._

"_Kids, I've made your favorite, liver sticks!" Not that again._

"_Great," answered Tai. "In a minute!" What was he going to do with the thing while he and Kari ate dinner!? Kari was by the window with it, doing what ever girls do with pets._

_Tai sniffed the air. "We're in luck! She burned them!" Maybe that'll buy them some time to hide the thing._

_Tai, his name is Koromon!"_

"_Huh?" What was she talking about now? "Who's name?"_

_Kari ignored him. Like that was new._

"_Koromon, what are you anyway?"_

"_I'm a digimon, short for digital monster. I'm from the digital world."_

"_How come you talk to him, and only whistle at me?" Come on, he was her brother! The pink thing was just a . . . a whatever!_

"_My name is Kari . . ._Kari._ And this is my brother. His name is Tai . . . _Tai_."_

"_Hi Kari-Kari Tai-Tai!"_

"_Never mind," Kari said._

"_He can . . . talk." Tai fell to his knees._

"_You two are the best friends I ever had."_

"_We're the only friends you've had."_

"He's mine," Tai whispered. "He's my digimon."

"What?!" Agumon shrieked. Clearly the sun had gotten to Tai's head more then he had realized. "But _I'm_ your digimon!"

"No, I mean yes, but he's my first digimon. A long time ago, before I ever came to the digital world, remember? I told you, digimon came into our would."

"I guess."

"This one was the one that came out of my dad's computer!"

The Greymon bobbed his head up in down with excitement, then licked Tai again. Tai laughed.

Agumon looked sulkily at the ground.

"You're not jealous, are you?" Tai asked.

"No!" Agumon crossed his arms and stuck his nose up into the air, reminding Tai of Sora.

"Tai!" Matt called from over where he was. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"It's alright! He's good!"

The others hesitantly came over. Greymon growled at Matt who was the closest. Matt backed away.

"Whoa, boy! Don't eat Matt! He's a jerk, but he doesn't taste too good."

"Jerk?" rumbled Greymon.

"Yes, we do not eat the jerk."

"Ok, then." Matt said. "Make him spontaneously make a lake of water for us."

Tai turned to the digimon. "Do you know where water is?"

The Greymon nodded and lowered him self to the ground.

"Come on guys. Climb on." They all squeezed themselves onto Greymon's back, Tokomon sitting on TK's head.

As Greymon rose to his true height, Matt reflexly flung his arms around Tai to keep from falling off. "Ah . . . this doesn't mean there's anything between us," Matt said.

"I understand, man." Tai replied with a grin.

Greymon bounded ahead. Agumon who was in the front, was having a hard time staying on, so Tai wrapped his arms around him. The wind on their faces felt good, and Greymon's stride was pretty smooth.

It wasn't too long before they came to an oasis. Greymon splashed into it, going in deep enough for the passengers on his back to be able to float off. Even Gabumon didn't care that he was wet.

They all drank deeply, including Greymon, who's large tongue splashed water everywhere. Matt swam up to a bolder in the water and rested against it. "Ok, I'm going to stay here, and not move ever again. Ever."

Tai floated on his back with his eyes close. He was aware of Greymon looking at him from the shadow, and a few drops of water landed on his face. He opened his eyes and looked up.

"Tai?"

"Yeah, big guy?"

"Where . . .is . . . Kari?"

Tai sunk a little deeper in the water. "We don't know. We think someone's possessed her or kidnaped her or something," he replied quietly.

Greymon's eyes dilated in to slits and he raised his head. A roar exploded into the air, making everyone have to cover their ears.

"Tai!" Matt shouted. "What did you do!? You made him angry!"

"Calm down, calm down!" Tai hushed.

"Who . . . are . . . they?!"

"I don't know who the jerks are or-"

Greymon's head turned to Matt at the word 'jerks'.

"No, no, no! Different jerks! Not that jerk. We like that jerk!"

"You know, Tai," Matt said, "if I die, it's going to be your fault."

Tai ignored him. "Listen, we're looking for her right now, but we're lost. We need to get to a portal back home first. Do you know where a portal is?"

Greymon shook his massive head.

"Do you know where anything is? Well, beside here that is."

"There . . . is . . . place . . .with . . . other . . . digimon."

The three other digimon turned their heads at this, wondering where their friends might be.

"_Bad place!_" Greymon growled.

Tai grinned at Matt. "Sounds like our next stop."

Matt groaned. Something told him this wasn't going to be fun.

"Food!" They all look over at Agumon who was at the edge of the water stuffing something tall and green in his mouth. Tai went over to him.

"What is that?"

"I don't know," Agumon shoveled more of it down.

Tai grabbed a handful of it and pulled it out of Agumon's mouth. "Don't just put stuff in your mouth and call it food! What if it's poisonous!"

"But it's yummy!"

Greymon came over and all of a sudden, plucked about 30 or so of the plants from the ground, and guzzled them down, dirt flying all over the place.

"Ok, you can eat this." He gave whatever it was back to Agumon.

"Sure, it's ok when _he_ does it!"

"Agumon . . ." Tai tried to think of away to settle this. "Ok, think of him as a big brother." Tai gestured to Greymon. Greymon was busy chomping on his meal, dirt and spit raining down on them. "A sloppy, very big brother."

"Yeah, whatever."

They all ate before they left. The boy's did not enjoy the meal as much as the digimon. Greymon promised that whatever this place was, it was not far, so they walked besides the great digimon. Matt didn't paretically want another ride. Neither did Agumon and Gabumon for they also had a difficult time staying on the Greymon's back. Soon, at the horizon, could be seen a small black dot.

"There it is! That the place we saw before we got lost!" Tai exclaimed.

"Are you sure? Because everything looks exactly the same from far away. And didn't Izzy say it'll take us three days to get to the portal? It's only taking two, _and _we got lost," Matt said.

"Well, it's not the portal, but it's in that direction," Tai said. "We'll check out that place first, see what's going on there. Then we can go home, see what Izzy's found out about Kari and do what ever it takes to get her back."

"Ok . . . if you say so." Matt wasn't too sure about this. He just wanted to get out of the stupid desert.

"If it's nothing we keep moving," Tai reassured.

Suddenly all the digimon stopped and focused their attention toward the horizon. Greymon wasn't the only one that let out a growl.

* * *

Kari stared out her window to the black ocean outside. She sat on a stone chair, her eyes still glowing and pupal less. Dragomon stared at her, but she made no indication to his presence. 

**My, Queen? Was there something you wanted to ask me?**

She turned her gaze at the digimon, making even him feel a little nervous. "Yes, where are the others?"

Dragomon laughed.** There are no others, my Queen.**

"You're lying." The room flashed with light and then went back to normal.

**I don't know what you mean. **

Kari stared blankly at him.

**Do you mean from the digital world? Your subjects from the digital world?**

Kari continued to stare back at him.

**They will be your's soon my Queen.**

Kari still did not answer.

He sighed. **I am leaving now.** He turned and left the room. Walking down the dark damp hall, he summoned one of his servants who reluctantly came. **Have you captured all of the traitor?**

The servant swallowed nervously. _What traitors?_

**The ones that work for the ones who want our queen!**

_Oh._ It wasn't what the servant was thinking his master was referring to, but relief didn't last long when he remembered the answer to the question. _N-no, Master._

Dragomon turned his red eyes to glare at his servant who withered as if in pain.

_There are still three missing._

**What?!**

_But Master, we've captured all the digimon in the aria. We can not find them._

Dragomon put a many fingered hand to his forehead. **Which one's are you missing?**

_Courage, Friendship, and Hope-_ Almost before he finished the sentence, Dragomon rammed his large tentacle arm into the servant, pinning him to the wall. **What did you say?**

The servant struggle to breath.

**Friendship I can deal with, Courage will cost you dearly but I might even be able to deal with him but _Hope!?_ Do you have any idea** **what this means?! If he and his _human_ get to our queen, then-**

All of a sudden, Kari was there, scaring both servant and Master. They both turned to her bowing their heads slightly.

"What is the matter?" Kari asked.

**N-nothing** replied Dragomon. **We were just discussing how to find the others you've been looking for.**

Kari put a hand to her head. "Yes . . . I think I'll go lie down." She walked back to her room. Dragomon turned his gaze back to the servant.

**I want you to find them. I don't care if you have to capture every single digimon in the whole digital world!**

_Yes, Master. _The servant hurriedly went off.

Dragomon went to his chambers. Underneath his bed, he pulled out a box. Opening the box, laid an egg nestled in a blanket. He caressed it gently with his tentacle. **At least we found you, annoying as it was. It's a shame you wouldn't join me voluntarily, pretty little one.**

The servant met with it's brethren. _He knows we haven't found them all! _It cried._ He wants us to find the others _now

_What should we do? There are no more in the aria that they should be in!_

_No, wait!_ Said a servant who's eyes were glowing as he made contact with their base in the digital world. _There is a presence being sense._

_Is it them? How many?_

_I think it is. Yes . . . courage . . .friendship . . .hope . . .and their humans._

_Yes! Yes! Yes!_

_And one other . . ._

_We should capture them, but what of the humans? They make the three more powerful._

_We should kill them. As well as the other._

_But then the Master will win._

_Shh! _They all hushed the one servant who said that._ We can not allow him to hear such words!_

_Yes, we must do what he says or he will punish us too greatly. We will never succeed._

_But if we kill the humans, the Master will have the Queen in his power forever._

_Maybe if we only kill some of the humans, the others can still defeat him._

_Yes, three out of 12 is still nine. Nine can still do it._

_Ok then._

_What should I do?_ Said the one with the glowing eyes.

_Release the starving on them. Make sure they know to capture the three, and only have the rest for what they wish._

* * *

"What's the matter?" asked Tai. 

"There's something there," Agumon growled. He toddled ahead, moving in front of Greymon, trying to see better.

"What?" Tai lifted a hand trying to block out the sun and see. He thought he saw a black dot moving toward them, coming from the bigger dot he saw before, but then the smaller black dot, divided into four and separated and then he lost them.

Suddenly there was a loud bang, roar of fire and flash of light. Everyone but Greymon jumped, for he was the one that had sent the fire ball off. He set off a few more in the direction where Tai had thought he saw the black dots.

"Did you get them?" Agumon asked.

_Them?_

"No . . ." Greymon growled.

Then Tai and the others could see it. It stood before them black against the sand. At first Tai thought it was another Greymon, but he realized it must be a Darktyrannomon.

To Agumon's surprise, Greymon stepped protectively over him and growled in the direction of the Darktyrannomon. The Darktyrannomon screamed out a challenge, making the boys cover their ears. Greymon roared back, more deeper and powerful then the Darktyrannomon, but he was answered from a second Darktyrannomon from the left. They all turned their heads in that direction only to hear another growl come from the right. There were three of them. Matt grabbed TK's arm protectively, Gabumon glaring at the one closer to them. They all jumped as yet another one growled at them from behind.

Four.

Then, before anyone could think, the Darktyrannomon at the front ran into Greymon, the momentum pushing Greymon backwards and sending sand through the air. Tai leapt out of the way as two very large dinosaur like digimon fell to the ground. Matt pulled TK to the ground with him, losing his digivice in the sand as he did so, as the Darktyrannomon from the right leapt over them to crash into the melee as well. The third Darktyrannomon scooped up Agumon into it's jaws.

Greymon twisted on the ground to get his feet underneath him. As soon as he did, he leapt forward, ramming his horns into the Darktyrannomon that had Agumon. Agumon fell to the soft sand below, while the wounded Darktyrannomon crumpled to the ground.

The victory was short for soon another Darktyrannomon sunk its teeth into Greymon's tail. He cried out in pain, the sound carrying for miles, but the sound was cut off as a third Darktyrannomon sank its teeth into Greymon's throat. Greymon yanked his tail from the mouth of the second Darktyrannomon and scratched at the belly of the third with his feet. The second let go, but the third stubbornly held its grip on Greymon's throat, biting harder so the blood dripped down his neck. The one that had, had his tail, then leapt un top of his back, sending Greymon crashing to the ground, throat still helplessly in the jaws of the dark digimon. Even the wounded Darktyrannomon pushed its self up and joined at the fray hungrily. Greymon thrashed his legs around helplessly, kicking up sand, as the two Darktyrannomon sank their teeth and claws into his sides, the other still holding his throat. Agumon was lost within the their legs and sand.

TK fumbled fo his digivice, still underneath his brother. "Tokomon! Digivolve! Help Greymon!" He said those words at the time Greymon screamed in pain as the Darktyrannomon bit into his tail. Matt scrabbled off of TK and hurriedly tried to find his digivice in the sand, Gabumon helping.

Tai . . . Tai ran into the mess of digimon to look for Agumon, and to _somehow_ try to help Greymon. "Let go of him!" He was wacked hard with a tail, having the breath knocked out of him.

As the three Darktyrannomon attacked the obvious threat of the Greymon, the last Darktyrannomon decided to snack on the helpless.

Tokomon digivolved into Patamon and flew up into the air, heading for the fallen Greymon to see if maybe he could distract the Darktyrannomon, but quickly changed directions when he heard TK cry out.

The Darktyrannomon chomped down on TK, but it missed judged the distance of the ground, its muzzle buried into the sand, TK in between its jaws. All it had to do was crunch its teeth together and TK would be history.

Matt got there first.

He kicked with all his might into the great digimon's eye. It yanked up it's head with a cry of pain, blood oozing from its eye. It turned its good eye at Matt with all the hate in its body.

"Crap," Matt muttered, as he tried to push himself up from the ground. The Darktyrannomon roared into the air, before bringing its teeth down on Matt, but a blast of blue fire averted its aim. It cried out again and began rubbing its nose with its clawed hands.

"Matt! I found your digivice!" Gabumon handed the small device to Matt. "I think it would be wise if I digivolved."

The Darktyrannomon recovered from the attack and was now charging back toward them.

"Ah . . . yeah. That'd be a good idea," Matt said somewhat nervously as he fiddled with his digivice.

"Agumon!!" Tai screamed as he ducked under tails and dodged clawed feet. "Agu-" He ran into the little orange dinosaur. He was so relieved he could kiss Agumon right then. "Agumon digivolve!" He shoved the digivice out ward, almost hitting Agumon.

The sand that Greymon lay in was soaked with blood. The Darktyrannomon that had his throat was getting bored of just holding it as its brothers had all the fun. He began to shake it, intending to rip the whole head off, when a light suddenly shown from underneath the Darktyrannomon and three horns rammed into its black hide. It released Greymon's head to cry out in pain, and Greymon's head fell hard to the ground.

Tai ran to Greymon's head. "Dude, come on! Wake up, man!" He tried to open Greymon's eyes, but the lids fell shut. "Come on, growl for me, didigivolve, something!"

After Greymon (the one that had been Agumon before . . . hmm. This could get confusing.) knocked the first Darktyrannomon away, he grabbed another one's neck with his teeth a threw him off the fallen Greymon. He was about to attack the last one, when the Darktyrannomon that he had stabbed with his horns, jumped onto his back. The Greymon gave a violent shake, and the Darktyrannomon rolled of easily. Two of the Darktyrannomon were bleeding profusely from both Greymons' horn attacks, but one of them wasn't really hurt at all. The forth one was forgotten all together. Once Greymon fended off one of them, another one would make a bite for the still Greymon on the ground. Greymon couldn't fight them all at the same time.

Greymon upchucked a few fire balls at the two Darktyrannomon farther away, who side stepped the attack, while he then dug his horns into the closer Darktyrannomon, pinning it to the ground. He pressed hard, hoping to kill it quickly so he could keep an eye on the other two, but one of them leapt onto his back, its claws sinking into his skin, its teeth at the base of his neck. The other, Greymon saw with the corner of his eyes, decided to take yet another bite out of the fallen Greymon.

Garurumon came out of nowhere, leaping up and attacking the Darktyrannomon that was harming the fallen Greymon. The crashed to the ground, rolling over each other, until stopping with Garurumon on top. Garurumon quickly turned his head and unleashed a blast of ice at the Darktyrannomon on the fighting Greymon. While Garurumon was distracted, the Darktyrannomon underneath him wiggled an arm free and slashed at Garurumon's face. He growled in anger and went for the throat.

The force of the Howling Blast made the Darktyrannomon slip off Greymon's back, but he still had a grip on Greymon's neck that caused Greymon to crash into the ground as well. On impact though, he released Greymon. Greymon rolled over to his feet and heaved as much fire as he could onto the helpless Darktyrannomon. He concentrated hard on it, wanting to make sure it was dead. While he was doing this, the Darktyrannomon he had under his horns, seconds before, grabbed onto his throat, just like it had down to the fallen Greymon. He thought for sure, he was doomed. Suddenly, Patamon came, shooting an air bubble into the eye of the Darktyrannomon. It released Greymon, shaking its head in surprise, not knowing what hit him. Greymon let out another Nova Blast on the stunned Darktyrannomon. Not lighting up on it until he saw the bits of data of the digimon flow up into the air. As soon as that was done, he turned to the one he been roasting before, letting the fire hit the ground were it had laid, till he realized that Darktyrannomon, was gone too.

"Whoa, lighting up, Greymon!" Patamon said, flying out of the way. The flames almost hitting him.

Greymon looked over at Garurumon. Garurumon stared back at him blue with eyes, blood on his white muzzle and claws, but he himself was fine. Then Greymon rushed over to were the other fallen Greymon lay. He panicked when he saw more data fly into the air, but it was only the fallen Greymon didigivoving into Agumon.

Tai leaned up against the large Agumon's sleeping head and heaved a sigh of relief. "You made it," he whispered to the large orange head. Greymon bent his head down to Tai and Agumon, tenderly licking both of them. It was weird now, that he was the larger one. He looked at the Agumon and felt something warm inside of him, like the feeling he had for Tai. This digimon sacrificed himself to protect him, and he wanted to do the same for him when ever he could.

"Well," Matt said strolling up to Tai, his thumbs in his pants pockets. "That was 'fun'."

"Yeah," TK agreed. "And real easy and not dangerous of the slightest! Oh! We should do it some more!"

"Ok guys," Tai closed his eyes and slumped to the ground, resting his head on Agumon. "I don't think I can handle being funny right now. I still have the feeling that I'm going to pee my pants."

"Why did the Darktyrannomon attack us?" asked TK instead.

"They are _Dark_tyrannomon," Garurumon said in his deep voice with amusement.

"Yeah, but do they usually hunt in packs? Because that was . . ." Matt tried to think of a word. "_Freaky_. Real freaky, like I'm going to have nightmares freaky!"

"You were,'t the one that was in between the jaws of one of those things! Their breath stinks!" TK said.

"Yeah, I just have eye guts on my foot! You scared the crap out of me! You couldn't move out of the way like a smart person?! Don't you ever do that again!"

"It's not like I _want_ to!"

"Hey guys," Tai interrupted. "Did you guys noticed how skinny those Darktyrannomon were?"

"Not really, I was too busy trying not to get _eaten_!" said Matt.

"I did," Greymon said.

"But we're in the desert," Patamon said. "It would make sense if they were hungry."

"But this guy," Tai said patting Agumon. "He lives in the desert and he can find food.

"They came from that place," Greymon said, staring at the building–the black dot– in the distance.

"Hey buddy?" Tai said gently. The Agumon opened his green eyes. "Do you know anything more about that place that you haven't already told us?"

The Agumon shook his head and gave an apologetic wine.

"There are other digimon there," Garurumon said, sniffing the air. "A lot."

Tai looked at the group. "They could attack us again."

"But were else can where we go?" asked Matt.

"Oh, we're going there! I was just trying to not sound like the leader, because I know that bugs you!" Tai said with a smile. "Ok, as soon as our hero here gets his rest, were heading for . . .the black dot thingy!" Tai said with a fist to the air.


	11. Chapter 11 The Black Dot Thingy

An: I know I keep disapering coming back in this story. It's because . .. I didn't think this far, so I havn't thought this far ahead and I just have to think. Also . . .for those of you who don't know, Tomodachi means friend in Japanese. I thought my6self so clever in thinking that up (though Tom is messed up name for a digimon) then I remembered that Tomodachi is the name of that little pet thing that you have to feed and stuff . . .you know what I'm talking about, right? I only realized that as I post this. Now I don't feel as cool. My computer has viruses so I had to get a flashdrive and go to a new one. Flashdrives our pretty cool, but my poor baby is sick. I didn't have my friend read this so I'm sorry for any spelling errors. I also tried to get all the digimon's names right, but if I'm wrong, don't yell at me. It makes want to cry.

Chapter 11

The Black Dot Thingy

As Izzy worked away at his computer, the rest of them killed time waiting at various places. Sora fell asleep in Matt's bed. Davis was in his room sullenly bouncing a soccer ball, while Cody played with a stack of cards, rearranging them into different forms of towers. Yolei watched everything Izzy did like a hawk while Ken sat in the room with them, staring out to space. Mimi was in the kitchen making lunch, Joe keeping her company.

"What do you think everyone likes in their sandwiches?" she asked Joe brightly, trying to lighten the mood.

"Would you like me to ask?"

"No, you don't have to move. I'll do what I did last time." She put the eight sandwiches on a large serving plate. The plate looked empty with the missing four sandwiches. She stared at it with a lump in her throat. "I-I'll . . . cut some fruit too!" She swallowed hard and went about the counter.

Joe watched her with sad eyes. He wanted to comfort her, but didn't know how. So he just sat at the table.

She washed some strawberries, then proceeded to cut the green parts off of them.

Strawberries.

Matt and Tai were fighting about strawberries . . . or cabbage . . . or something! She couldn't remember. Her eyes blurred with tears at the thought of them not coming back. She couldn't see what she was doing and accidently cut herself. She gasped and pulled away, holding her hand to her chest, a little afraid to look at the damage.

Joe got up and went over to her. "Did you hurt yourself?"

She laughed. "I'm fine."

Joe pulled her injured hand from her chest. "I have a band-aid in my pocket." He carried it around, cause you never know when you'd get a paper cut. He pulled it out from his back pocket and opened it, gently wrapping it around her slender finger. "Sorry it's not pink," he said with a smile.

Tears welled up at the corners of her eyes.

"What's wrong? Does it still hurt? Did I put the band-aid on too tight?"

She shook her head. "No . . . it's not too tight."

"Want me to kiss it and make it better?" As soon as he said it, his face turned red and he looked away.

"It's just . . . that . . . what if . . . they don't come back? Tai, Matt and . . . poor TK and Kari!" Tears spilled over her face freely and she put her free hand over her mouth, Joe still held the injured hand.

"It'll be ok. They're strong guys. They've been though worse."

Mimi nodded, her face still red with tears. He hesitantly brought his fingertips to her cheek to brush them away.

"All better?"

"Oh yes! Lunch!" She pulled away, and put the strawberries on the plate. "Everyone must be starving." In her hast she dropped some of them. "Shoot."

She bent down to get them at the same time Joe did, their heads banging together.

"Oh no! Are you ok?!" Joe asked in a panic as Mimi swayed a little with her hands to her head.

"Good, are you ok? This is the second time you hit your head."

"I'm fine. I'm so sorry. Here, let me get the strawberries!" He picked them up feeling horrible.

Mimi laughed. "Things just keep happening don't they?" As Joe threw out the dirty strawberries, Mimi picked up the plate. "Well, I don't want to keep the other's waiting."

* * *

"I haven't found out much," Izzy admitted as he chewed on the sandwich. Everyone was in his room except for Sora who was still sleeping. "I have figured out--when the computer lets me-- that if I click on one of the red dots, I can find out who's who. See?" He clicked on one of the red dots that was either Matt, Tai or TK and a window popped up showing the symbol of hope. "This one's TK." 

"But that doesn't help us very much," added Yolei.

"No, but I can check on them. I know TK's digimon is in rookie level. Tai and Matt's are in champion level, which gives me concerns, but other wise the three seem to be fine."

"That's some good news," said Cody.

"As for the mysterious emails . . . not only are they annoying to figure out, but they've seemed to change languages. Maybe it's a code, but they're not speaking Japanese anymore. It might be the kind of writing that I've seen in the digital world, but I couldn't read that either. I think it holds computer information.

"So how are we going to find Kari!" asked Davis. "She's not in the digital world, you can't read the emails, what do we do next!?"

"I don't know, Davis. If I did, I'd tell you. I haven't actuallygot any legible replies back."

Davis let out a frustrated scream.

Sora came in, rubbing her eyes. "I'm guessing you haven't found anything?"

"Sora! I made you a sandwich," said Mimi.

"I think I'm going to go crazy!" Davis yelled. He couldn't just sit here anymore.

Ken got up. "Davis, let's do some soccer."

"What?! Now?!"

"Yes, now." Ken went to the door and looked back at Davis. "Are you coming or what?" and he left.

"Wait!" Davis went after him.

Ken got a soccer ball and marched outside to the goal set up.

"Why is it now that you want to be playing soccer?! Kari's in danger!"

"Well it's better then moaning on the ground and yelling at Izzy," Ken said simply. "What, you don't want to play? Fine, chicken out then."

"I'm not chickening out!"

"Good." Ken dropped the ball onto the ground between them, and before Davis could think, kicked the ball so hard the sound of it actually made Davis wince and it flew into the goal. Apparently Ken was going easy on him when they were playing before. "Oh look, I think I'm winning."

"You're going down Pretty Boy!" Davis said as he ran to retrieve the ball."

"Oh, am I?"

Davis didn't know why, but Ken was really ticking him off.

"My turn!" He moved around Ken and Ken stepped into the goal. Davis kicked the ball with all the anger and frustration he had.

. . . and the ball went in.

Both Ken and Davis stared dumbly at the ball who was now rolling to a stop far away in the sand.

Then, "In your face!" Davis said, pointing a finger at Ken. "That ball went _right_ past you!" He started dancing. "I did it! I beat Ken! The famous, unbeatable, unstable Ken is finally defeated by whom?!" He buffed his nails on his shirt. "Me."

"How come you can never do that when we are actually play in a game?"

"What?! The team looks up to me! You're just jealous." Davis grinned at Ken.

"Is that it?"

"Yep, now go get the ball, so I can do it again!" Ken sighed, and started to get the ball. "Oh Ken?"

He turned to face Davis.

"Thanks."

* * *

_The three destroyed the starving . . ._

_It's the humans! They made them stronger!_

_The master won't be happy . . ._

_Maybe he won't find out . . ._

_But he will! He will!_

_What should we do?_

They stopped talking when they heard their master slowly making his way down the hall.

_Shh . . . he's coming._

**You, have you found the last three yet?!**

_Yes, Yes. We found them!_

_Yes, we found them!_

_We sent . . . they are to be captured immediately._

**Good. Don't mess up,** and he continued on his way, having other things on his mind.

* * *

"Cool. What is it?" Whispered Matt, as they stared at the decent sized stone building. Patamon was flying around it, to look for a way in and if there were any more enemies. 

Tai looked at Matt. "It's the black dot thing!"

"I know that!"

"Shh," TK shushed them as they heard the flapping of wings, but it was only Patamon.

"We're in the back of the building," Patamon said. "There's a door on the other side but there's a Snimon guarding the door."

"A Snimon, huh? Well that should be pretty easy to take out," Tai mused. "Ok I have a plan."

* * *

Agumon –the one that originally was Greymon – bounded through the sand, right in front of the Snimon, but not close enough for it to stab him with its five foot sickles. Agumon rounded the bend. The Snimon hissed at it before leaving its post and going after him . . . 

. . .right into Greymon's and Garurumon's attack.

"See," Tai said. "Easy."

"Yeah . . . I remembered when things seemed easy . . ." Matt said. "Then all of a sudden, for some reason, they become _not_ easy! Whatever is in this building, is not good. We should just go look for the portal."

"Maybe the portal's in there."

"Tai, Izzy said–"

"I remember what Izzy said!"

They stopped when they heard movement inside the dark doorway. A pair of red eyes met their's for instant, before the creature let out a startled cry and snuffled back away.

"Wait! Come back!" Tai went in. Matt rolled his eyes and started to follow. The rest filed in.

_Clink!_

"Ah, Tai?"

Greymon, surprised by the unexpected force stopping him, tried again.

_Clink!_

His horns rammed into the stone doorway.

"Tai, Greymon can't fit!" Matt called after Tai.

Tai reluctantly stopped, realizing the creature was long gone, and walked back to Greymon.

"Greymon, you're gonna have to digivolve."

"But what if we have to fight a strong enemy inside?" Greymon asked stubbornly as he tried to push himself through, his feet kicking up sand.

"Then you can digivolve again. Besides, what ever's in here can't be that big, if _you_ can't even fit through the door."

Greymon didigivolved to Agumon. Tai looked at the two Agumons and sighed. "I think we're gonna have to come up with names for you two so we don't confuse ourselves."

"Can I stay Agumon?" asked the Agumon who had just digivolved.

"If it doesn't bother him," Tai said, pointing at the other Agumon. That Agumon shook his head. "Ok . . . a name . . ."

"How 'bout Spot?" asked TK?

"Or Spike?" said Matt.

"Or Rover."

"Or Scruffy"

"Or Max."

"Or Snuffles."

"Or Fluffy."

Tai glared at the two brothers. "Wow, guys. Those are some pretty great ideas," he said sarcastically. "What would you like to be called?" Tai asked the Agumon.

He tilted his head to the side as he thought, then he shrugged his shoulders.

"We can call him Tomodachi," Agumon suddenly said.

"Yeah, Tom for short," TK said.

"That ok with you?" asked Tai.

The Agumon --or now Tom– nodded his head and they all went into the building.

They walked through the dark hallway for a long time. Finding no other passageways, but the ground slowly descended downward.

"At least it's cool in here . . ." TK said with a sigh, too tired to keep himself up straight, leaning up against his brother.

"Would you get off me?" whispered Matt.

"Huh? . . .Look light!" TK pointed farther up the hallway. Matt thought for a second TK was delirious but there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

They all cautiously poked their heads into the room. The room was lit up by torches, and sitting in the room were more of the things with red eyes, about 30 or so of them. They sat there starting at the boys and digimon, the boys and digimon stared back at them.

"Um . . ." Tai started.

_It's the traitors! _All of the creatures screamed and at once they attacked them.

Tai and friends hastily turned around and tried to escape, but the creatures were faster then they looked, and caught up to them before everything turned black.

* * *

_We caught the traitors! _The servants crowed and danced back at the dark ocean. 

_But . . . wait . . . this means the Master's winning again._

_This is a very delicate situation._

_Have we made contact with . . . the other's? _One of them whispered.

_Yes, we have for a while . . . but the humans are awfully stupid. We gave them all the needed information but they keep asking questions!_

_Queen Kari will help us._

_But she can't . . . she's under the Master's control._

_Is she?_

* * *

Kari stared out the window to the sea. Its waves were black as it beat against the shore. It was a dead sea, she knew. Nothing swam in its waters. There was no life here. 

That's what _he_ said. _He_ said that there was only he, the servants and herself. It was a believable statement. She had sense no other life here. She could taste it in the air.

He was right after all.

But she knew he was wrong.

He had to be. She knew, clearly that there was someone else here, someone else at least. She didn't know why she knew this. It defied all that she sensed, all the everyone told her, and all that she witnessed, but she remembered. That and nothing else. She wasn't supposed to be alone. Not with these pathetic life forms.

And . . . if she concentrated hard enough . . . just barely, she thought she could hear a heart beat . . .

No, she was wrong. It was just the pounding of the waves of this dead, gray place.

* * *

Tai painfully opened his eyes, barely seeing the stone floor below him. It was very dark, and his head felt like a truck fell on it. He was being held up by something. He tried to move, but his hands were held behind his back with a chain that was fastened to the wall. The chain was the thing keeping him up right. He saw Matt and TK in a similar situation in front of him. The digimon were no where to be seen. Tai, Matt and TK looked like they were in some kinda cell. 

Matt looked over at Tai and smiled. "Hey, Tai are we at the portal yet? 'Cause . . . I don't really know why . . . but it feels like instead of being on our way home, WE'RE LOCKED UP IN A CELL BY EVIL DIGIMON THAT ARE MAD BECAUSE _SOMEONE_ WANTED TO GO GIVE THEM A VISIT! You are _so_ lucky right now that I'm chained up, because if I wasn't, I'd KILL YOU! We couldn't ignore this place and go look for the portal, NO! We had to check this place out! Well, do you find it interesting, Tai?! Do ya?! Is it everything you thought it would be?!" Matt thrashed against his chains.

TK looked tiredly at his brother. "Are you done?"

Matt took a deep breath. "Yeah . . . I'm done."

Tai tried to lift his head. "Where are the digimon?"

"I don't know," Matt said, uncaring.

"Matt!"

"Well, they got to be around here somewhere," TK said. "They're probably just in another cell." He craned his head to look out the bars, trying to see into the other cells. He couldn't see the other cells very well, but he couldn't see the creatures that had captured them either, so he decided to try his voice. "Patamon . . . ?"

There was a squeak from the neighboring cell.

"Patamon, is that you?!"

There were more excited squeaks.

"Are the others with you?"

He was answered by the growls of the other digimon.

"See? There they are. Everything's just peachy."

"Well . . . since they're not talking back, I'm guessing they're tied up and gagged better then we are," Matt said. He was answered by a rustle of chains and one of them beating against the wall. "Yeah, we're just _peachy_."

"Ok . . ." Tai said. "We just need to think about the situation and then will be home free . . ."

"Yeah, good luck with that," Matt said.

"Come on think," Tai muttered to himself. "Think, think, think, think!" He rammed the back of his head to the wall as he said this.

"That's productive," Matt said.

"Wait, if the digimon didigivolve they'll be smaller right?" asked Tai.

"Yeah . . ."

"So if they're smaller, maybe they can wiggle though whatever's tying them up!"

TK gave Tai an odd look. "So that ramming your head to the wall thing actually works?"

"Are you listening?!" Tai called over to the digimon. "Try it!"

There was a flash of light and all the digivices started to glow.

"Yay! Yay! Yay!" The voice sounded like Koromon as he bounced up and down again. "We can talk again."

"Kay, can you squeeze through the bars?" asked Tai.

"Hmm . . . it's gonna be a tight fit," said Tokomon. "But we can try."

There were some groans and squeaks as Tokomon tried to squeeze himself through the bars. Then after that, there was a small 'pop' and Tokomon went flying to the other side of the hallway, hitting the opposite cell, and landing on his head.

"Did I do it . . . ?" he asked groggily.

TK, who could now see Tokomon at this angle grinned at him. "You did it."

"Ok Koromon, it's your turn." Tokomon crawled back over to his celled friends.

"I don't know if he's going to fit," said Tsunomon.

"Nonsense," said Tokomon.

"Yeah, I can so fit," Agreed Koromon. There were a few noises from Koromon as he failed to squeeze though.

"What if I grab onto his ears . . . and Tsunomon and Tom push?" Tokomon asked.

"Watched the horn, Tsunomon!" Koromon cried. There were squeaks and screams of pain as the digimon tried to forcefully pushed Koromon through the bars.

"Stop! Stop!" Tom said.

"Uh-oh . . ."

"What happened?!" asked Tai.

"Well . . ." Tokomon said. "Koromon's kinda stuck."

"Well . . . can't he just suck it in?!"

"Suck what in? He's just a head. We have the top of his head on one side and the bottom jaw is on the other side." There was muddled wailing as Koromon tried to talk. "So the bar's kinda stuck between his teeth."

"How the hell did that happen?!"

Tokomon shrugged his shoulders. "Should we try to squeeze Tsunomon and Tom out first?"

"NO!" Tai, Matt and TK said together.

"Tokomon." TK said. "We are gonna need to get keys to let us out," he motioned to Tai and Matt. "You think you could find them?"

"Sure thing, TK" he started to leave. "But what should we do about Koromon?"

"Tsunomon and Tom . . . can push him out . . . or pull 'im back in," Tai said thinking. "Just get him on one side of the bars."

Koromon whimpered.

Tokomon toddled off.

"Hmm . . ." Tsunomon said thinking. "Whatever we do, it's probably going to hurt," he told Koromon.

* * *

Tokomon made his way through the dark halls cautiously. If something attacked him right now, he was doomed. He couldn't even run very fast. 

_If I were keys, were would I be?_He thought. He closed his eyes and imagined a ring of keys hanging off of a peg. Though imagining keys and seeing keys are two very different things.

After some timeof imagining keys and not paying attention, he found himself somewhat lost. On either side of him were more cells much like the ones he and the others were thrown in.

He slowly stopped when he realized that there were other digimon in them, lying lifelessly on the floor.He even recognized some of them. He hurriedly made his way the bars. "Yokomon? Motimon?" The others were there too, tied down tightly with their bonds not moving, except Yokomon open her beautiful green eyes.

"Tokomon . . . did they get you . . . ?"

"Yeah, but I got out. They got Tsunomon and Koromon though. And TK, Matt and Tai are in trouble. I'm looking for keys to get everyone else out. Do you know who's doing this, Yokomon?"

Yokomon shook her head. "They look like Scubamon, but they're not . . . or at least not all of them are. I don't know what they are."

"Do you know where the keys are?"

"I think . . . I saw one of _them_ carrying a set . . ."

Tokomon sat down and rested. He looked down all the cells, filled to the brim with weak digimon. How was he going to get all of them out? He looked back at Yokomon, her eyes were closed again. Everyone was depending on him.

He took a deep breath. He wished Koromon could have gotten out.

All of a sudden, he heard someone approaching. He looked right, then left, trying to figure out where he should hide. It was dark and hard to see, maybe they wouldn't notice him . . . except for the fact that he was white . . .

He found a very dirty spot on the floor, and began to roll around in it, hoping that it would blend his color into the dark a little better.

The creature that looked like a Scubamon came, making its way down the hall. Tokomon saw a flash of light. The torches on the wall, reflected their light off of something small and of mental that was hanging from the creature's waist.

The keys!

The creature passed Tokomon, then stopped to look into one of the cells. It did nothing, probably just stopping to think.

Tokomon let out a Bubble Bow at the creatures back. It screamed in pain and fell forward in surprise. As it fell, its head fell in between to bars of the cell. It tried to pull free its head, but the fins on either side of its head would not let it pass. It flailed itsarms and screamed. Tokomon took the keys from it, before it could stop him.

"Tokomon," Yokomon had opened her eyes again. "Get out of here. Help TK and the others. This guy's screaming will only bring the others here!"

Tokomon ran as fast as he tubby legs would let him.

* * *

"Ok," Tsunomon said, looking at the stuck Koromon after a while. "Koromon it round, right?" 

Tom nodded.

"But, Koromon . . . for some reason had his mouth open and got the bar stuck in there . . ."

Tom nodded again.

"Well . . . at some point, before the bar went into his mouth, the two bars had to pass the point in which Koromon is the widest."

"Um . . . yes?"

"So it is possible to squeeze Koromon in the space between the bars."

Koromon wined not liking where this seemed to be going.

"If we push on the opposite side of his mouth, since he's round, he should just roll out.

"Mm-hmm," Tom agreed. Then Tom pushed on the opposite side, and Tsunomon pushed on Tom. After a scream of protest from Koromon and a small popping sound, Koromon was on the outside of the cell.

"You can let go of the bar," Tsunomon said.

Koromon opened his mouth and fell to the ground.

"How're you feeling, buddy?" Tai voice could be heard from the cell next store.

"Like my jaw's broken . . ." muttered Koromon. "Should I go after Tokomon?"

He was answered by a jingle of keys and Tokomon toddled to him. Apparently he wasn't as lost as he thought he was.

"Good job, Tokomon!" TK cried happily. "See Matt, everything's still cool."

"TK . . ." Tokomon said out of breath, dropping the keys to the ground. "I found the other digimon and a whole lot more! There are tons of them!"

"Well, get us out first," TK replied.

With some difficulty, Tokomon opened the cell to the boys. Being too short to reach the lock, he had to stand on Koromon's head and even then it was awfully hard, for Tokomon had no hands, and had to hold the keys with his teeth. After some tries, he eventually got it unlocked.

Once the boys were out, it was a lot easier getting Tsunomon and Tom out for the boys _had _hands.

"Ok," Tai said once everyone was free. "Where did you see the other digimon?" But as soon as he said it, they could hear the running of feet coming closer.


	12. Chapter 12 The Crest of Friendship

AN: Ok, I notice I update after everytime I see my cousin . . . what's up with that? And she lives far away so I don't see her often, though she is moving closer so . . . who knows how fast chapters could come up.

No what really bothers me? Cody. He's so much younger then everyone else. He hasn't even hit purperty yet! How can make him part of the group?! Anyway . . . I was talking to my brother about him, and when we where hyper and in this high squeaky voice he said, "Where's my porperty?!" Like it was candy. I don't know why I find that so funny. I'm laughing as type this.

I beleive I actually came up with the part of the story in a dream before I even started writing this . . . Now I'm off to hide again.

Chapter 12

The Crest of Friendship

_The prisoners are free!!_

Tai looked around. "What prisoners . . . ? Oh us? We're not free . . . I . . . just had to use the bathroom."

"And boy did he have to go," added Matt. TK slapped his forehead with his hand.

"Really bad. I almost wet my pants."

"Do you know what it's like to be stuck in a cell with someone who's wet his pants?!"

Tai nodded. "The smell is horrible."

"It's like the smell from Hell."

"But it's ok now. We just went outside so I could pee, then came back like good little prisoners."

"We're just about to go right back in the cell right now."

"Right . . ."

The creatures looked up at the dumb humans with their red eyes.

"Guys digivolved!" Tai shouted, before turning and sprinting the other direction, Matt and TK right behind him. Tokomon digivolved into Patamon before follow them. The other's stayed to shield off the creatures, blowing fire to block their way.

"Patamon! Where are the other digimon?!"

"This way!"

Soon they found the other digimon.

Tai ran down the hall trying to see where the cages of weak digimon ended but it just kept going and he ran back. "That's a lot of digimon . . . this is gonna be hard."

"Really? Because I thought it was going to be easy."

"Shut up, Matt. Here," He took the ring or keys and took two off, handing each of them to Matt and TK. "You guys start unlocking cells down here. I'll start over there."

They opened the cells, but the digimon were all very weak. The most they could do, was crawl out and collapse in the hallway.

"Come on guys, move!" Matt would push them and they'd move a little more.

TK was unlocking cells as fast as he could, it soon became a rhythm. He came to a metal door instead of a cell. "What's this?"

Patamon flew up to inspect it. "I don't know."

"The doors lock. Maybe it has more digimon in it." He opened the door to see yellow glowing eyes, a bunch of white teeth, and something metal flying toward his face before closing the door. There was a sound of metal on metal as TK jumped back, heart pounding.

"What's in there?" asked Matt.

"Not . . . a nice . . . digimon."

Tai heard the commotion. "If it's a digimon, is it a prisoner too?"

"I don't know, but I'm not opening that door again!"

"We can't leave anyone behind!"

"Fine, Tai. If you want to free him, go ahead."

"I will. He's probably more afraid of you, then you are of him. And if he's strong, maybe he can help us." He opened the door, then shut it again. "Never mind." There was more crashing on the other side.

"What happened to 'no one gets left behind,' Tai?" Matt said with a smirk.

Tai didn't have a come back. "Ok, lets just get everyone else out. We have to find--" but the creatures had come back and they were being chased by Agumon, Gabumon and Tom.

"I'm sorry, Tai! They got passed us," Agumon said.

_They're freeing everyone! We're doomed! We're doomed!_

The creatures ran around in circles panicking. "How were we captured by these guys, before?" asked TK.

"I don't know, but we need to get everyone out before they try to stop us."

"I think a smell fresh air this way!" Agumon said as he, Tom, and Gabumon smelled the air.

"Good, everyone follow them!"

"Tai . . . they can barely walk," Matt said.

"Well, they'll walk anyway! Come on get up!" He shoved the weak digimon with his feet. "You guys are free, come on!" They started to walk. Tai carried more of the weaker ones, and Matt and TK helped. As time went on, the digimon started to speed up just a little at the hope of getting out. "We can do this," Tai said.

* * *

_We're doomed! We're doomed!_ they cried.

_The master will find out, and he will kill us!_

_We're doomed! We're doomed!_

_No, wait! The left the sand demon . . ._

_. . . he will help us._

_Yes! He will kill them! _

_Not as good as capture, but better then escaping._

They unlocked the mental door and a digimon leapt from the room then buried deep into the ground, after the slow-moving group of digimon.

* * *

Agumon had come back to the end of the group with the boys to help carry stragglers. Patamon would fly to one end and back to check on progress. The trail of digimon was so long that no one could see the front of it where Gabumon and Tom led.

There was a rumbling noise. Matt stopped. "What was that?"

Tai put down the digimon he was carring and tried to listen. It was getting louder. "Is it coming from behind us?" He went back a few strides to try to see whatever it was. Matt put down his digimon and went next to Tai.

"Wait . . . I think it's coming from the walls . . ."

"No, it's coming from the–" The ground exploded, separating Matt and Tai from everyone else. A digimon came from the hole, looking like it was made of bone with a huge pair of pinchers. It looked at TK and the digimon and was about to attack them when Tai threw a loose rock at its head. It turned its focus on them and suddenly a mental blade tip came crashing down on them. Tai pulled Matt out of the way before he was impaled. "RUN!" He pushed Matt ahead of him as they ran further away from the group. The digimon scrambled after them.

"What the hell was that?!" TK screamed at Agumon as he looked over the rubble. Tai and Matt gone.

"That was SkullScorpiomon. If you're hit buy his tail, you'll be gone before you hit the ground. It's poisonous."

"Oh great! PATAMON!" Patamon was just making his way to their end of the group.

"What happened here?"

"Patamon! Tai and my brother are gone! We have to go after them. Can you fly up ahead and tell Gabumon and Tom so they're know and stop?"

"I want to go with you!"

"No, go tell Gabumon and Tom. Then you guys can come after us. Agumon will be with me. Come on Agumon!" Tk and Agumon rounded the hole, and ran after the SkullScorpiomon.

Patamon flew to the front of the long line of digimon. "Gabumon! Tom!" They turned around at the sound of their names. "There's a SkullScorpiomon after Tai and Matt!"

"We have to save them!" Gabumon cried.

"Agumon and TK went after them. TK wanted me to tell you before going too." Patamon looked at the other digimon. Some had fallen asleep. "Maybe one of us should stay here with the digimon . . ."

Tom raised his hand to volunteer. He could tell Patamon and Gabumon were anginous to get to TK and Matt. Tai had Agumon. Gabumon and Patamon went to go find the others.

* * *

Sora found herself on Matt's bed again. Maybe if she pretended that the others weren't in danger, she would stop worrying so much. Worrying wasn't helping at all. Everyone else was distracting themselves somehow, but she didn't know what to do. She could play soccer with Ken and Davis . . . but it had the funny way of reminded her of Tai, and how she didn't say goodby to him when he left. She made herself feel less guilty about that by reminded herself she was mad at him.

She should start thinking about happier things . . . Her eyes rested on Matt's guitar and she smiled to herself. She pulled Matt's bag onto the bed and started to go through it. She found Matt's folder, and knew if she wanted too, she could probably find the song he was keeping from her, but the fun of finding it was gone with out Matt trying to stop her so she didn't.

She sat there for a moment, the silence starting to get to her. She found Matt's CD player, and took out one of his CDs randomly. Putting the headphones on, she lay down and rested her head on his pillow before turning it on.

She was a little surprise to hear Matt's voice on the CD before the music began. For a second she thought he was there, talking to her. But it was just his voice on the CD saying the name of the song before his band started playing. She sighed. His voice was slightly comforting though, and it wasn't long before she fell asleep again.

* * *

Tai and Matt scrambled for their lives as the SkullScorpiomon chased after them. They pushed on each other, trying to make the other go faster.

They rounded a corner and the rumble of rocks stopped as the lost it. "I think it's gone," Tai said.

"What if it went after TK?!" Matt cried, obviously panicking. "He's all by himself! He's gonna die!"

"Calm down, Matt. He's not by himself. All the digimon are with him."

"Tai . . . I'm FREAKING OUT! What if he's not with the digimon?! I bet he left them! He definitely left them! He probably went after us, because he's a stupid moron! And now that thing's gonna find 'im and inhale 'im, or stab 'im, or crush 'im, or impale 'im or–"

Tai slapped Matt in the face. "Calm down, Matt."

"Yeah . . . ok."

"Now, let's retrace our steps, and find TK and the others . . ."

Matt took a deep breath. "Yes . . ." They looked around the corner to a giant hole blocking their way back. "Should I be panicking now?"

"No, no . . . it's all right . . . we just . . . have to figure out a way to get across."

They looked down the hole.

"Yeah . . ."

"We can go around it!"

"Tai, the ground is _so_ unsteady."

"We can do it," he said as he tried to squeeze himself between the wall and the hole. He turned around to Matt, offering him his hand. "Come on."

Matt stared at Tai. "You're gonna kill me. _You_ will be the death of me. I should have known the first time I heard you say 'Hey you!' at camp seven years ago."

Tai grinned as Matt took his arm and they shimmied to the other side. "Just don't look down."

Matt slipped, but Tai kept a firm grip on him. "You might as well drop me. You're gonna kill me anyway."

Tai laughed. "Come on, Matt. We're already on the other side."

"Matt!" TK's voice called from down the hall.

"TK!" Matt was about to run over to him, but the rumbling was back and he stopped short. Tai and Matt turned around and looked at the hole. SkullScorpiomon exploded from the hole.

Matt saw it coming before Tai did.

He grabbed Tai by his shirt, spinning him out of harm's way, before one of SkullScorpiomon's claws plunged into Matt's back, piercing through his stomach. Matt clutched at Tai's arms, using them to help him stand. Their eyes were locked on each others. Matt's wide with pain, Tai's wide with horror. TK's screams seemed far away. Matt's digivice glowed before Garurumon bounded passed them, attacking SkullScorpiomon's poisonous tail before it could plunge that into Matt as well.

As Garurumon hung off SkullScorpiomon's tail, it roared in pain and ripped its claw out of Matt. Matt gasped in pain and fell forward. Tai wrapped his arms around him, covering his arms with blood, but Matt's wait caused them both to fall over.

Agumon and Patamon digivolved and went to help Garurumon. Tai crawled out from under Matt, carefully turning him over before dragging him away from the fight.

"Tai . . . you owe me big for that one . . ."

"It's ok, you're gonna be ok," Tai said and wished he believed himself.

TK crashed to his knees at his brother's side. "Matt! What the hell did you do to yourself!?" He screamed, tears coming down his cheeks.

"We need to stop the bleeding!" Tai said. TK wiggled out of Matt's shirt and gave it to Tai. Tai tied it tightly around Matt's middle. He winced and cried out. "You're gonna be ok. Once we stopped the bleeding, and you let yourself heal you'll be fine. Then we can find the portal together and back to the other's and find Kari–"

"Tai . . . I'm sorry . . . about the whole Sora thing."

"What? . . . Now's not the time to talk about Sora!"

"I shouldn't have started dating her . . . I should have let you guys make up with each other. You're my best friend. I don't know what I was thinking."

"Matt, stop it! Don't talk like that. I told you, you're gonna be fine!"

" . . . Matt?" TK whimpered, afraid to say anything more.

Matt smiled at him. He raised his arm to knock TK's jaw with his fist gently. The effort he used was even painful to just watch. "Love you, TK." His arm fell limply to his side.

"Matt! Look at me!" Tai shouted in his face, but Matt's gaze was dead and distant. "Matt!" He snapped his finger's in his face. When that didn't work, he slapped him in the face. "Dammit, Matt!" He grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. His body was limp. "No!"

TK stared at his older brother, tears silently going down his face. He couldn't speak. He couldn't even move.

Tai got up in frustrate. "No!" his voice cracking. "You can't do this to me, Matt! You can't die and be the damn hero! Get up!"

But he didn't move, he only laid still.

* * *

"Oh my God!" Izzy cried out.

"Huh? What?!" Yolie sat up on Tai's bed sleepily and bonked her head on Izzy's bed. "Ow! These things are not high enough."

"One of them just disappeared!"

"What?! What are you talking about?! How could one of them just disappear? Did they make it to the portal?"

"No! The little red dot! It just went out!"

"Let me see!" Yolie pushed Izzy out of the way to look at the computer.

* * *

"Hey, Sor!" Davis poked his head into Matt and Joe's room. "Wake up. There's something wrong!"

Sora lifted her head. "What?"

"Don't know." Davis hurriedly left to go to Tai and Izzy's room. Sora scrambled after him. Everyone else was already there. "What's going on?"

Izzy's face looked sick with worry. "One of them is gone . . ."

"What are you talking about?! What do you mean by gone?!"

"My computer doesn't detect that he's there anymore."

"What does that mean?!"

Izzy took a deep breath. "There's a possibility . . . that whoever it is . . . is dead."

"What?!" Sora collapsed in front of the computer. "Who?! What the hell?! Why is the computer's screen black?!"

"You know how my computer's been frizzing out? It did that before I could find out who it was."

"No! Work! Work!" Sora started beating on the computer.

"Sora, stop it! We still need it! And maybe we're over reacting. Maybe nobody died," Yolie said.

"Yeah, since your computer's been frizzy out, maybe the red dot just frizzed out, too because of the computer," Davis said.

"I don't know. All the digimon digivolved. I think there was a fight . . ."

Sora ran out of the room.

"Sora!" But she didn't stop.

One of them was dead . . . It had to be Tai. She didn't say goodby to him. What was the last thing she had said to him!? She couldn't remember, but she hadn't forgiving him. She let this stupid fight get so out of hand. Now she would never be able to fix it. It must be some kind of punishment. Maybe karma was trying to teach her lesson.

She ran out to the lake and started screaming, tears falling from her eyes, holding Matt's CD player.

She suddenly stopped.

No . . . if karma really did want to teach her a lesson . . . it wouldn't be Tai. Tai couldn't so easily disappear out of her life . . . It had taken someone else. She clutched at Matt's CD player till it hurt her fingers.

* * *

Kari gasped and put a hand over her chest. Her heart all of a sudden hurt. She felt something wet slide down her cheeks. She touched it with her finger. It was coming from her eyes.

Why? Why was this happening? She felt as if she had lost a part of herself, but that didn't make sense . . .

The Master came into the room.

"You," she said. "What is this?" She held her wet finger.

**What, my dear?**

She made an irritable noise and he winced. "_This!_"

**I don't know,** he said.

"Fine. Leave me. I do not feel well." She turned back to her window and he left.

* * *

After a moment, Sora could hear someone running after her. She didn't take her eyes off the lake.

Mimi stumbled over the sand in her platform shoes, tears on her face. "Sora!" she choked on the word. "Oh, Sora!" she sobbed and flung her arms around Sora. "It was Matt!" and she sobbed, burying her face into Sora's shirt.

Sora didn't take her eyes off the lake. She had already known.

Matt's CD player lay broken on the ground.

* * *

"I can't believe it. I can't believe one of us is dead!" Davis cried. His face was red and his eyes misted as he rammed his fist into the wall.

Izzy wiped his eyes with the back of his hand before returning it to type on his keyboard. "Maybe he's not. I just don't know, ok?"

Yolie cried softly into Ken's chest, her arms wrapped around his neck. Ken sat there, his eyes distant. Joe sat on the bed, staring at his hands.

"Can't you find out for sure?" asked Cody. "Could we call them to see what happened?"

"It's been saying that Matt's number has been disconnected," Izzy said, but he tried Mimi's cell phone again anyway.

Cody stared at the screen where only two red dots were, right next to each other neither of them moving.

* * *

SkullScorpiomon's tail clanged uselessly on the ground as the three digimon finished him off. As soon as he could, Garurumon left the fight and ran to Matt. He whined and licked Matt's face before didigivolving to Punimon. Punimon sat on Matt's chest, closed his eyes and didn't move.

Tai stared down at Matt trying to make it sink in.

Matt was dead.

There was nothing he could do about it.

"Matt . . . ? Matt?! Matt!" Sobs started to wrack through TK's body and he reached out to his brother's hand before resting his head next to Punimon.

A rock fell from the ceiling. There were huge cracks made from the fight the digimon had. A few more rocks fell and there was a rumble as earth started to shift.

"Dammit, we have to get of here," Tai muttered. "The building's gonna cave. TK, grab Punimon and let's go."

TK lifted his head, his face red and tear stained. "We can't just leave him here!"

"TK! Yes we can! Now do it!" Tai's voice rang through the hall, and it made TK move. Still sobbing he took Matt's digivice, grabbed Punimon and kissed his brother on the head. Punimon screamed out from being removed from Matt.

Tai grabbed TK's shoulder and hauled him up. Then he shoved him forward causing TK to stumble. Greymon digivolved to Agumon because the hall way was too small for him to move fast enough. Angemon stayed as he was. His wings brushed the ceiling and then the floor as he flew. His white feathers around TK gave him some comfort as he ran.

They caught up with the other digimon. "MOVE!" Tai ordered. The group went to a new speed at Tai's commanding voice, no one wanting to disobey him. He pushed and pushed them. They ran as the walls around them fell, eventually they came to the light at the end of the tunnel.

The climbed out, the building in debris around them. Tai helped yank everyone out. Once everyone was out, he looked around. The little digimon were exhausted and collapse in the sand wherever they fell. TK curled up, clutching Matt's digivice to his chest. Angemon didigivoled into Patamon and nuzzled him, trying to comfort him as best he could.

"Ok . . . you guys get like a five minute break, but then we have to find food, and then the portal! I don't care how tired you are!"

Tom looked at Tai awkwardly. What had happened to the other one?

"Tai . . ." Agumon tried.

"WHAT?!"

"I . . ."

"What Agumon?! If you don't have anything to say, shut up! I'm trying to think!"

Agumon winced but didn't leave Tai. "It's not your fault . . ." he whispered.

"What?! Whatever." He fell to the ground. "Save up your strength. We're gonna move soon."

* * *

Kari fell to her knees. They were screaming. Who were screaming? Who else was there?

No one . . .

He was lying.

She screamed out. She had to help them. Light shot out of the digivice around her neck out from the window and into the sea. She closed her eyes, feeling tired and laid down.

When she woke, she had no memory of feeling anything.

* * *

Sora stared at the lake feeling empty and numb. She thought she saw a light coming from the lake. She must have been imagining it. She didn't care all that much.

Matt was dead.

Anger welled up inside her. Maybe it was caused to protect her from the loss, but she wanted to make someone pay. Someone had to be behind this. Someone took Kari away, didn't they?

Mimi could feel the light by now and lifted her head. "Sora . . . what is . . ."

The light separated, part of it going over their heads into the camp, the other part heading for them then splitting once again. Part of that went into Mimi's hands, the other floated in front of Sora's face. The light faded.

"Sora . . . it's our digivices . . ."

Sora reached out her hand slowly to it then took it. She felt light go through her as she stepped into the water.

"Sora . . . what are you doing? You're going to get your clothes all wet! Sora? Sora!"

She disappeared.

"SORA!"

* * *

Everyone stared dumbly at the digivices in their hands. Izzy was the first to break the silence. "Oh my Gosh! Now that we have the digivices, I can put you guys on the internet and attach you to the emails and send them back to the Dark Ocean place and you can get Kari back and you could go to the digital world and see what's happening in there and possibly help them!" Izzy said this all very fast and most of it went over everyone's head, but they got the just of it.

They weren't helpless anymore.

Mimi came crashing into the room screaming. "SORA'S GONE! SHE JUST DISAPPEARED! EVERYONE KEEPS DISAPPEARING! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Her screams pierced into everyone's brain and Joe got up to try to calm her down.

"Mimi," he put his hands on her shoulders. "We are not all going to die. Sora's just gone into the digital world before us. We'll be right behind her. Everything's going to be ok. I promise." Mimi stared up at him with tear filled eyes, before flinging her arms around him.

"Well . . . um." Everyone stared at the two. "Sora's in the digital world," Joe said, trying to turn everyone's attention on that. "We should probably go after her. I'm worried on what she'll do. She must be taking this really hard."

"Right," Izzy said. "We should probably spilt up. Half of us go into the Dark Ocean and the other half goes to the digital world. I'll stay here to man the computer."

"I want to go after Kari!" Davis said.

"I'll go too," said Ken. "I've been to the Dark Ocean before . . ." He seemed unsure that he wanted to go though.

Yolie noticed this and said, "Me too . . . I want to go too."

"Are the rest of you okay with going in the digital world?" asked Izzy

Cody nodded.

"Yeah," Joe said. "We'll find the others."

"If they're not already dead!" Mimi sobbed.

"Mimi . . ."

"Ok, guys. Joe, Mimi and Cody, I'm doing you guys first. I'm not sure where you guy'll end up. Joe, got a cell phone?"

"Yeah," he handed it to Izzy.

"Mimi, take your cell phone. It worked before, maybe we can get it to again, and then I can tell you how close you guys are to each other. Ready?"

They nodded and held their digivices to the screen.


	13. Chapter 13 Pushing Ahead

An: Kay, I thought I updated pretty quickly, considering how I've been . . .and I haven't even visted my cousin. I think it's because I've just killed Matt. I can't beleive I did! (sob cry) I didn't actually feel guitly about it till later, and then all sorts of things starting to make me cry, like moives. I don't cry for movies, but I was nearly in tears watching Tarabithia, but my brother was there and I didn't want to cry in fron of him. (sniffle) Ok, I'm better now.

I've been spelling Yolei wrong again. I forgot I had been and got back to my old habit of spelling it like Yolie. I tried to stop, but I'm not sure if there are few Yolies out there in this chapter. I know I did it last chapter. I'm sorry

Chapter 13

Pushing Ahead

Tom led the way, following the scent of water. TK looked ahead at Tai's back, his shoulders tensed and every once in awhile he turned around to tell them to hurry up. TK held Punimon close to his chest. His warmth helped his heart beat a little easier. Patamon was on TK's head, trying to shield the sun from his eyes. Punimon hadn't said a word since . . .

"Patamon . . . ?"

"Yes, TK?"

"What's wrong with Punimon?"

"I don't know," Patamon said. There was a silence before Patamon spoke again. "TK . . . what happens when people die? Do they go to a nursery like digimon?"

TK swallowed thickly. "No Patamon, the don't."

"Then where do they go?"

"They don't go anywhere, ok?!" he snapped.

Tai stopped and looked at TK, then sighed. "We're taking another break!" he shouted. "It'll be years before we get anywhere anyway," he muttered.

TK sat down where he was staring at the sand. "I'm sorry, Patamon . . ."

Patamon blinked.

"I guess . . . people go to Heaven when they die . . ." TK looked up to the sky.

"What's Heaven like?"

"Don't know. Never been there, but it's supposed to be filled with angels," he said and tugged on Patamon's wing. "They fly you up there and show you the way."

"So . . . Heaven's up there?" Patamon asked and looked up into the sky.

"Yep."

"Hey TK!" Patamon flew from his head to face him. "I can fly! I can fly you up there, and you can see Matt and maybe I can bring him down, too and things will be back the way they're suppose to be. It would make Punimon better and Tai, too."

TK stared down at Patamon, a tear sliding down his cheek. "Patamon . . ." He took the little digimon and held him close. He couldn't bring himself to tell Patamon that it wouldn't work. He couldn't say the words.

* * *

Sora opened her eyes to see blue sky. She could hear the ocean and the warm sand felt good on her skin. She wanted to stay there forever. What was the point of getting up, anyway? How could things ever be all right again? They would never be the same. 

What was the point of anything?

But she knew she had to force herself up . . . for a reason she wasn't quite sure on. She promised herself she would be grateful for it later.

Get up.

Her head swam once she sat up. She waited for it to subside, digging her toes into the sand. She had forgotten to put shoes on. She looked around. She couldn't see any life at all . . . The jungle loomed behind her, silent and slightly frightening.

She had to find Tai.

Where would he have gone? Probably in the jungle the idiot that he was.

She got up slowly, and staggered as she tried to walk forward. She knew if she was attacked by anything, she wouldn't be able to defend herself at all, but she didn't really care. Maybe she wanted to hurt herself.

She reached the jungle, her hands outstretched to keep balance, stroking the leaves as she went by them. The earth felt cold under her feet. She felt like she was in a dream. She was wondering aimlessly. The chances of her finding Tai were about as big as her feeling of caring. She'll probably end up dying out here . . .

No . . . she was going to find Tai.

Somehow.

* * *

The light faded and Joe, Mimi and Cody found themselves surrounded by trees. 

"Oh we're in the jungle!" Mimi cried out.

"So?" asked Cody.

"There are _things_ living in jungles! Any second they'll jump out on us and so something gross!"

Cody stared at her flatly.

"Ok, guys . . . we have to find the others," Joe said.

Both Mimi and Joe jumped up as a sudden noise started to ring through the air. The both landed on the ground, backs straight, simultaneously. Cody thought they looked oddly similar.

"_I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world . . ." _The sound was slightly muffled.

"Oh . . ." Mimi placed a hand over her chest. "Is that _my_ cell phone?"

"Well, it's definitely not one of ours!" Cody cried out.

Mimi started to go through her purse. "I know it's around here somewhere . . ."

"You just got it back, shouldn't it be easy to find?" asked Joe.

"Well, sometimes things just all jostled up in here," she laughed. She found it. "Hellooo!?" she sang. "We're all peachy here . . . except for Cody, who's being a Mr. Grumpy pants!" she said, kneeling down to Cody's level in a baby voice.

Cody glared at her.

"Though, Izzy . . . did you have to send us into the jungle? Why not at the front entrance of a hotel?" she looked up at Joe. "Joe? Izzy want's to talk to you!" She handed him the cell phone.

"Joe, I see Sora. She's close to you. Just keep walking North," said Izzy's voice from the phone.

"North . . ." Joe muttered "Which is . . . if the sun set's in the west, and right now the sun's . . . I can't see the sun, there are too many trees."

"Oh . . . well . . . um just move somewhere you can see the sun."

"O . . .kay . . . We need to get somewhere where we can see the sun," Joe said addressing Mimi and Cody.

"Okay!" Mimi said with a smile and started to leave.

"Wait, Mimi! We need to stick together!"

She laughed. "How hard is it to find the sun? It's right up in the sky!" she said before disappearing through the leaves.

"Mimi!" Joe started to go after her. Cody sighed. He should have gone with the other's to the Dark Ocean.

"Mimi . . . slow down. What if you hurt yourself? You could trip and sprain your ankle or get lost. Do you even know how find food in the wild? Mimi, I can't see you and it's making me nervous."

Joe stopped when he came to an open meadow, Cody running into him. Mimi was standing in the middle of it, a smile on her face and the sun making her pink hair glow. She raised her hands to the sky and spun around. "I found your sun, Joe," she said.

Joe stared at her, noticing how lovely she looked in the light.

"Joe? You gonna move?" asked Cody.

"Yes . . . right, the sun." He moved into the meadow. "We have found the sun," he said into the phone.

"Where is it?" asked Izzy

"Where is it?" he repeated.

"_Joe_, it's in the _sky_!" Mimi said, waving her arm toward the sky.

"I know that, _where_ in the sky?"

"Joe, just look at it! How can you miss it?!"

"Mimi . . . never mind," He gave up on asking his question and tried to figure out himself. "Um Izzy . . . I think it's noon."

Joe could hear Izzy sigh through the phone.

"Well, what direction did we move in already?"

"The map is too small. Any movement that you make is too small for it to show it."

"So whatever direction we do go in, if we pick the wrong one, it'll take us miles to get back on track before we notice?"

"Yep."

"What if we just wait for the sun to move?"

"That's what you guys are going to have to do, but Sora could be moving farther and farther from you. I doubt she'll just stay in one place."

"Maybe she'll come to us."

Izzy laughed dryly. "Maybe. Call me back later then. I have to get the others in the Dark Ocean."

"Okay, we call you if anything happens." Joe turned off the phone. "We're going to stay here for a while til the sun moves and we can get our direction. Then we'll find Sora."

Mimi sat down. "Okay, I was getting tired anyway." She laid down and closed her eyes.

After a moment she lifted it again. "I'm hungry."

* * *

Ken, Yolei and Davis fell face first into the gray sand. "I'm gonna be sick," Davis muttered. "That was more . . . stomach lurching then just going to the Digital World." 

"Well . . . we're here . . ." Ken said somewhat softly. "This is the Dark Ocean." The black sea beside them crashed its waves against the gray shore. On the other side of them, black stone jutted out into the gray sky. It was as if there was no color in this place.

"Cheery," Davis commented.

"Now, remember that you emotions have a huge effect on you in this place, so . . . try not to get depressed or anything . . ."

"Right, happy thoughts. So where's Kari?" Davis brushed the sand of his pants.

"I don't know."

"KARI!"

"Davis!" Yolei cried. "What if someone else hears you!? We don't have our digimon with us. If we get attacked, were dead! _Dead_ Davis! Like, painful death!"

"Yolei, does it look like anyone is here?"

"What was that?!"

"Nice, try Yolei, but you're not freaking me out . . ."

Suddenly Yolei started screaming making Davis scream too, until Yolei's screams turned into evil laughter.

"Guys," Ken said a little angry. "What of someone does hear us?"

"Maybe it'll be Kari," said Davis.

"What if it isn't?"

"Then we're screwed," Davis said as if that was a happy thought. He took a breath as if he was about to shout out Kari's name again but Ken put his hand over his mouth.

"Don't . . . do that, Davis."

Davis took Ken's hand away from his mouth. "Then what's your way of finding Kari?"

"I don't know. Let's look around or something . . . Oh I'm going to try to call Izzy," Ken said, taking out his cell phone. "You have Joe's number on your arm still, right?"

"Yes!" Davis said holding up his arm. He was giving the number before they had entered the computer. Ken typed in the numbers.

"Izzy? We're fine. We don't see anything yet . . . I'll call you later, I just wanted to know we made it. We should keep the phone free incase you need to get to the other's." He hung up. "Let's go."

They started onward, across the dead beach.

* * *

They made it to the oasis. Tai personally made sure everyone was drinking enough before he collapsed onto the sand exhausted. Agumon and Tom watched him worriedly. "You should drink something, too, Tai," said Agumon. 

Tai bit off his angry retort and just stared at his two digimon, before taking a scoop of the water. He was surprised to feel something press against his side and a thump, as Tom laid himself down beside him, before curling up and closing his eyes. Agumon nudged his head under Tai's arm and rested his head on his lap.

Tai didn't want to be comforted. It made him angry, but looking at Agumon's green eyes made his anger subside and he sighed. Maybe _they_ were the ones that needed comfort. He placed his hand on Agumon's head and looked over to where TK was. TK, too. He needed comfort. H was laying, underneath a large rock, curled up to try and fit in its shade.

Tai wasn't very good at that sort of thing . . . not when he was in such a bad mood.

So instead he left TK there and started thinking on what he had to do. He looked around the oasis, of little digimon either drinking or sleeping. He needed to get them back to the jungle. He also needed to find the portal _and_ he needed to find Kari. His first priory was to find Kari, but even he couldn't leave the baby digimon out in the desert. Not if he could help it.

What if they split up? One of them go on to find the portal, and the other lead the digimon back home? He looked over at TK again and tried to remind himself that he wasn't the eight-year-old little boy anymore . . . it wasn't helping at the state that TK was currently in . . . he was still clutching Punimon.

His original plan was to make TK take the digimon back and then he, himself would find the portal so he would be able to see if he could find his sister, but he realized how selfish that would be . . . to make TK go all the way back to the jungle through the desert. He still didn't have a shirt; he'd burn up. The portal had to be closer then the jungle.

But Tai didn't want to leave his sister in the hands of the boy curled up with the tear stained face.

He groaned. Agumon looked up at him, reminding him to be softer before saying, "Hey TK! Get over here!"

TK pushed himself up with his elbow to look at Tai, before getting all the way up. He shuffled over, painfully slow. It made Tai even more angrier, and he didn't even know why.

It wasn't TK's fault.

It was his fault.

Tai got up and stared down at TK. Patamon landed beside him. "TK," Tai's voice was hard. "One of us is going to have to take the digimon back, and the other's gonna have to find the portal and then go after Kari."

TK looked up at Tai, but didn't say anything, waiting for him to continue.

"You . . . go after Kari!"

TK opened his mouth as if to say something, but no words came out.

"Did you hear me?!"

TK nodded vigorously, afraid Tai would literally bite his head off.

"Good," Tai said out of breath. "We'll spilt up after we're done here . . ." He looked at Punimon. "Punimon should probably stay with me and the rest of the digimon . . . It'll be faster for you."

TK nodded and offered Punimon to Tai. There was a sad smile on his face as he looked up at Tai, intrusting his brother's digimon to him.

_That_ hurt Tai the most.

He hesitatingly took the digimon, holding it carefully as if he was afraid he would crush him.

"I guess I'll leave then," TK said, still the same sad smile on his face. He turned to Patamon. "Pegusmon will probably be the fastest." Patamon nodded and armored digivolved before TK mounted him.

"TK . . ."

TK looked over at Tai. "Bring her back safe . . . please." Tai bit his lip.

TK nodded before Pegusmon opened his wings and leaped into the air, leaving Tai and the digimon far below on the ground.

Tai took a deep breath and tried to see how the other digimon were doing. The long green plant things were still here. They should take those with them for food. How could a lot be carried? Maybe he could tie a little on every digimon, and each could carry there own food.

As he was thinking he gave Punimon to Tom "Watch him for me, kay?" Tom nodded.

Agumon went over to talk to Yokomon. "Hey, Yokomon, I just noticed that Gatomon isn't with you . . ."

"You're right. When she wasn't captured too, we all assumed she was with you guys."

"Gomamon isn't with us either," said Montimon.

"I hope they're all right. Do you think they're together?"

Tom came over with Punimon. He set him down and gave him a lick, but Punimon did not respond.

"Punimon . . ." Tanemon sighed. They all huddled up against him, trying to comfort as best they could.

Agumon saw Tai watching them, but when Tai saw Agumon noticing, he turned his gaze away and started pulling on the plants that grew around the oasis.

* * *

Mimi studied her manicured hand and watched the sun reflect the light from the sparkles of her nail polish. 

"Mimi, you could help, you know?" Cody said from coming back from within the trees.

"Help with what?" Mimi said completely innocently.

"Joe and me are looking for food, because_ you're_ the one that's hungry!"

"You are? That so kind of you!"

Cody tried hard to suppress his anger when there was a sudden cry from Joe. "It sounds like Joe needs our help."

Mimi waved it off. "He's gonna be a doctor. I'm sure he's fine."

"_Mimi,_"

"Ok, ok." She got up and followed Cody to where the sound came from.

They found Joe hanging from one foot from a tree, a rope around his ankle, swinging slightly. His glasses dangled from one ear, and his hair hung freely.

"Joe!" Mimi exclaimed. "Why are you upside down?"

"Mimi? I don't know, but . . . GET ME DOWN!"

"Hold on, Joe" Cody said looking up at the rope, trying to figure out the best way to this. "We'll get you down . . ." But before Cody could do anything, they were suddenly surrounded by a group of Crabmon. Mimi started screaming and jumping up and down, panicking.

"There's more then one. You fool!" said one of the Crabmon to the other.

"We can take them," another answered.

They started to come closer, raising their large pinchers. Cody picked up a large stick and waved it defensively at them, remembering his Kendo.

One of the Crabmon went near Mimi and he gave it a good swat, before poking the stick underneath it and flipping it over. It wiggled its legs, unable to righted its self. Another went over at Joe and he quickly dispatched that one as well. He continued to run back and forth between Mimi and Joe until one of the Crabmon chopped Cody's stick with its large pincher.

"Crap,"

Mimi's screams got louder and even the Crabmon winced at the pitch.

"Princess Mimi!?"

Suddenly a Gekomon sprang out of the leaves. "It is Princess Mimi! Oh, and she's distressed!" A few more Gekomon came out as well.

Mimi stopped screaming and clasped her hands together. "The Gekomon!"

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" said one of the Gekomon to a Crabmon. "Attacking Princess Mimi and her friends like that!"

"We thought they were the kidnappers . . ." said the Crabmon, blushing. Another Crabmon climbed up the tree and snipped the rope that was holding Joe. He fell on his face.

"I'm all right," he muttered, picking up his glasses.

Mimi started crying to one of the Gekomon who patted her comfortingly. "Now, Princess Mimi, everything will be all right."

Cody rolled his eyes. Mimi was perfectly fine.

"Come with us," said another Gekomon. "Our hideout is under ground."

They led them into a hole in the ground that was concealed by a bush. They had to go on their hands and knees and it was especially difficult for Joe, though Mimi complained the most.

"Don't worry, Princess Mimi. We'll make sure that you get a hot bath and a good meal. Are you hungry?"

"Oh, I'm starving!"

"Did you hear that?" asked the Gekomon to the others. "Princess Mimi is starving! We must hurry."

They took them through a long tunnel, which grew bigger the deeper they went and lead them to a chamber were there were two couches next to a fireplace with a fire, for it was fairly cool under ground. The room was lit up by torches.

"Oh, I'm exhausted," Mimi sighed, before falling onto one of the couches, the other's sat more hesitantly

"Get Princess Mimi some nourishment! Quickly!" and the Gekomon scrambled away.

"We must inform the leader," said one of the Crabmon and they left too.

"Now what?" asked Cody. "Should we still go after Sora?"

"I don't know . . . you think we should just leave?" asked Joe.

"Joe!"

Everyone's head turned to the familiar voice. "Gomamon?"

Gomamon bounded over to Joe and placed his claws on Joe's knees. "Man, you've gotten tall."

"Gomamon, wha . . ." Joe was too surprised to speak clearly.

"Cody and Mimi are here too . . . So, you two gotten married yet?" he asked motioning between Joe and Mimi.

"What?" Joe's face turned bright red but it was hard to see in the dim light.

Cody drew his eyebrows together in confusion and Mimi let out a little, "Huh?" She wasn't sure who Gomamon was referring to when he said "you two" though she assumed one of them was her, since she was the only girl in the room, but then you never know.

"You know," Gomamon continued, oblivious to Joe's frantic faces as he tried to signal Gomamon to shut up. "Isn't that what humans do, before they do that whole reproductive thing?"

Joe kicked Gomamon, hoping no one saw in the lighting.

"Ow, oh . . . well anyway . . ." Gomamon pulled himself on the couch next to Joe. He left the sentence hanging and Joe took this opportunity to change the subject.

"What's going on? Why are we here? What is this place and who's this leader?"

"Well . . ."

The Gekomon came back with some other digimon and huge trays of food.

"Oh! Food!" Mimi cried out in glee.

"It must be true!" exclaimed a Candlemon. "If this is your Princess Mimi, these must be her warriors!"

"Huh?" Cody and Joe said at the same time.

"Now that you mention it," said a Crabmon. "That one had wield a stick as if it was a sword."

"The prophecy _is_ true!" crowed the Candlemon.

"Gomamon, what's going on?!"

Gomamon laughed nervously. "They think you're part of some prophecy." He waved it off. "They're kinda nuts, if you know what I mean," he whispered.

"_Gomamon,_"

"Right," he turned to the digimon, who were now bowing at Cody. "I would like to speak with the warriors and Princess Mimi alone," he said in a tone that made Joe raise his eyebrow.

"Yes, of course," the other digimon left.

"Well . . ." Gomamon started again. "They kinda think I'm their leader . . ."

"And how did that happen?" asked Cody asked suspiciously.

"After half the population of digimon that lived here started to go missing, I told them I could bring them back . . ." he gave a guilty smiled.

"So you lied?" asked Joe.

"No, maybe I can help . . . but I did make up the prophecy . . ."

"_You_ made that up!?" cried Joe.

"Hey, they were panicking. If I didn't do something they would have thrown themselves to who ever's doing this and we wouldn't have made this hideout together."

"Yes, I guess you're right."

"Of course I am. It's a wicked cool hideout."

Joe ignored him. "So digimon have been going missing?"

"Yeah, they've been taking them to two places that I know of. One's in the middle of the desert and the other it in the bottom of the ocean. We haven't gone out to the desert, but we have gone to the one under the water. We can't get through, but . . . I might know how to open it . . . never mind. That's impossible."

"Have you seen Tai, Matt, TK or Kari?" asked Cody.

Gomamon looked at Cody. "No, why?"

Mimi, who had been munching on cookies during the conversation suddenly put her cookie down and folding her hands on her lap.

Joe took a deep breath. "Kari disappeared awhile ago. We think someone was controlling her, and TK followed her. After that, Tai and Matt went to the digital world to look for them. We know that they found TK, but we think Kari was sent somewhere other then the Digital World. Then . . . we lost contact with them . . . Izzy can see where they are on his computer, except for . . ."

"Something happened to Matt," Cody finished. "We're not sure what."

Mimi covered her eyes with her hands.

"Sora got upset and went into the Digital World without us. We're supposed to find her and then start looking for the others. We can't stay here long, if we want to catch her."

"Oh . . . Kari's disappearance and the kidnaping of digimon have to be linked, right?" Gomamon said, thinking.

"About that thing . . . you said freeing the digimon that are held underneath the ocean is impossible, but it sounded like you had another idea."

Gomamon bit his lip. "The place is locked up with a dark shadow . . . and you know a digivice can break that right?"

The three looked at each other.

"That's great!"

"But one of you have to do it and you guys have to go after Sora."

"We could split up . . ." Joe suggested.

Mimi looked over at Joe, her hands by her mouth as if she were about to bite her finger nail.

"Joe . . . did you not hear me before? It's at the bottom of the ocean! You'll have to get there alive first. You won't have any air if I take you. And even if you made it down there, you'd still have to make it back up."

"Oh . . ."

"Yeah."

"Oh . . ." Joe repeated. "How deep is it?"

"One thousand, three hundred and thirty-two feet, almost four miles."

"How fast can you swim?"

"Joe, you can't be seriously be thinking of going down there!" Mimi exclaimed.

Gomamon grinned at Joe. "Depends on what form I'm in."

"How fast can you go at your fastest?"

"Maybe about a mile a minute."

"I think I could hold my breath in four minutes . . ."

"Joe!"

"But I've never been able to digivolve that high," Gomamon said.

"You mean it's your Mega form?"

"Yeah . . ."

Joe looked at his digivice. Maybe he could make Gomamon digivolve through sheer will. Didn't Tai try to do that once? It hadn't ended so well . . . but Tai was trying to do it just for the sake of digivolving. They needed it this time.

"Joe!" Mimi shouted again. "You have to come back up, too!" she cried out in almost a panic. "That's _eight_ minutes! Can you hold your breath for _eight _minutes?! And what about Sora!? We have to find her!"

"Right . . . Mimi, I want to call Izzy." Mimi gave him her cell phone hesitantly, briefly thinking about not giving it to him. He took the phone. "I'll be right back."

He left the room to talk to Izzy alone. Gomamon, Cody and Mimi watched him leave, wondering why he couldn't talk to Izzy in front of them.

"Hey Izzy?"

"Finally! You called! You were giving me a heart attack. I wanted to call you, but I was afraid you were being attack or hiding or something and I might give you away."

"No, we're fine. We found some digimon and Gomamon is with them . . . where's Sora?"

"She's already at the desert!"

"What?! But– How long has it been since I last called you?"

"Like two hours."

"But . . ."

"And Tai and TK have spilt up for who knows why. But it does look like Sora's going in the right direction to Tai . . ."

"Well . . ." Joe said before telling Izzy about what he found out from Gomamon, but he left out the part about how deep this thing actually was.

"I guess you could try. These things have to be linked anyway, and you guys are lot closer to the ocean. Maybe you'll find the rest of our digimon." Izzy said hopefully.

"How's the search for Kari coming along?"

"They haven't found anything yet . . . but they think they can see a tower in the distance and are heading for that."

"Sounds good."

"Call me back as soon as you can."

"Sure," and Joe hung up. He turned around and almost ran into Cody.

"I want to do it," Cody said, his face dead serious.

"Cody, what are you talking about? It would be better for me to go. My lungs are bigger then yours."

"Stop it. I don't like being treated like I'm so much younger then everyone else. You were my age when you first came to the digital world. I want to do something . . .

" If Armadillomon were here, he could digivolve into Submarinemon and take me down there without me having to hold my breath," he said as an after thought.

"Well, he's not. Cody, what would be the point sending you if you're more useful

here?"

Cody looked up confused. "How am I going to be useful if I just stay here?"

"You guys need to find the others. It's very important and I . . . I need you to look after Mimi. I'm sure you could be very good at that. You practice Kendo, right? You'll be good at it. Please. Mimi's . . . careless at times. She needs to be with someone."

Joe looked so sad as he said this that Cody couldn't say no. He nodded his head yes. "At least think about it better, though," he said. "Maybe it will sink into your brain better and you'll realize how stupid you're being."

Joe smiled "Ok, I'll think about it." When they returned, Gomamon offered them more food, a bath and even a place to spend the night. Though Joe was pretty sure, he was not going to change his mind.


	14. Chapter 14 One Step Forward, Two Steps B

AN: I'M UPDATEING!!! I don't think I have anything else to say . . . 'cept work sucks.

Chapter 14

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Ken, Yolei and Davis had found a small cave that they decided to spend the night in. Yolei and Davis had fallen asleep instantly; Yolei curled up peacefully and Davis sprawled on the ground with his mouth open and snoring loudly. Ken smiled at them. He couldn't get to sleep, not with the constant crashing of the waves making all that noise. He wondered how Davis and Yolei had managed.

He guessed having a look out would be a good idea, so he kept his eyes at the opening of the cave. What was that? He thought he heard something . . . like a voice. He hesitantly got up.

"_Ken?"_

He whipped around, thinking the sound came from deeper in the cave. _"Ken? Where are you?"_

The voice sounded annoyed at him . . . and deathly familiar._ "Mom and Dad are going to kill you if you don't come out right now."_

" . . . Sam?"

* * *

"_You know Tai, if I die, it's gonna be your fault."_

"_As hard it is to believe, has it ever occurred to you that maybe I do love Matt?!"_

"_I WAS JEALOUS OF YOU!"_

"_Well, for one thing Mister, Matt is a thousand times better then you'll ever be! He's sweet, he's kind, he never harasses me like you do! Maybe, one day, we'll even get married."_

"_Who's fault is it then, TK?!"_

"_You leave TK out of this!"_

"_I can leave who I want out of this!"_

"_Maybe we should leave you out of this!"_

"_Me? Kari's my little sister!"_

"_TK's my little brother!"_

"_Guys, stop it!"_

"_What's your problem, Tai?!"_

"_Tai, stop it."_

"_You idiot! How can you be so freakin' _stupid!?_"_

"Shut up!" Tai rammed his fist into the sand. More then one digimon looked up at him. He should just stop thinking. Yeah . . . but for once in his life, he found it hard. He couldn't stop thinking about Matt, no matter how hard he tried to block out his stupid face . . . with that stupid smug little smile of his . . . Damn Matt . . . and Sora too. He could picture her too, and the way she would look at Matt. He hated that look. He wished that Matt would disappear . . . Well he got that accomplished, didn't he? Matt was dead.

_Dead._

And it was his fault. _He_ should have died. He should have been impaled. Matt should have been the one alive now. Matt should be the one with Sora. Sora loves Matt.

But now he wasn't and will never be again.

Sora was going to kill him. He smiled to himself. At least then something would go right.

He should just forget about Matt. Matt was part of the past now. Right now, he had to make sure to bring the digimon back home.

He had never been close to someone who died before . . . Maybe . . . No. He had to stay strong. He wasn't going to cry for Matt. He was going to concentrate on what was ahead. That was the only thing he knew how to do.

* * *

Joe heard a knock on the door of his room. He was just about to go to bed. Well he had been preparing himself for sleep a while, but knowing he wasn't going to get much of it. 

The door knocked again and Joe picked up his glasses, which he had just set down and went over to the door to answer it.

"Mimi?!" He hid behind the door, trying to remember if he had kept his pants on. Yes . . . he still had those on. He hastily tucked his shirt back into his pants before facing Mimi.

"Oh, I'm sorry Joe! Of course you must have been sleeping!"

"No, no. I was up. It's there something the matter?"

"Um . . . actually . . . I . . ." she stammered and looked at the floor before swallowing and staring at Joe straight in the eye. "I have come to tell you not to go."

"What?"

"Oh don't be like that, Joe! We both know you can't do this! It's like when you tried to run after the squirrel when your head was bleeding! You act all smart all the time, but then BAM, you do something stupid!"

Her words hurt a little. She didn't think he could do it. It made him want to do it even more. "Mimi, this is something I have to do."

"Have to do? _Have_ to do?! Joe, what we _have_ to do is find the others.What we _have_ to do is save Kari. Once we find the others, then someone else could do it and save all those digimon . . ."

"So you have no problem if _someone else_ could do it? Why can't I do it Mimi? Am I incapable?"

Her eyes started to water. "No . . . it's not that. It's just . . . that I get so worried about you! I'm afraid . . . you'll do something stupid just because you're trying to prove something that doesn't need to be proven . . . and you won't come back." She started to cry, her hands covering her eyes.

Joe was sorry that he had made her cry. He wanted to make her stop. He wanted to put his arms around her, hold her close to him and not let go for the rest of the night. This could be the last night he had. He should tell her that he cared for her the way he did.

But then . . . Joe wasn't very good at that kind of thing.

"I'm sorry," he said and he closed the door.

* * *

Yolei felt cold and moved a little in her sleep. She felt something warm against her and briefly thought it was a warm blanket. "Eew gross! Move over Davis!" She kicked him and he moved a little but he didn't seem to wake up. She sat up and looked around the cave. Where was Ken? 

"Davis?" she shook Davis' shoulder. "Where's Ken . . . ? Oh my God! He's gone! DAVIS!" She hauled him up and started to shake him. "He's gone! He's gone! He's gone! He's gone!"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Davis muttered as he became more awake. "Calm down, Yolei. He's probably just left because he had to pee." Davis tried to crawl back up again, but Yolei held onto him.

"But what if isn't?! What if something happened to him?!"

Davis sighed. "Go look. He's probably right outside the cave."

-30 seconds later-

"HE'S NOT HERE!"

"No . . . he's not . . ." Davis said with on hand rubbing his chin. "But we don't need to panic . . . he's just . . ." He spun around, looking for Ken, but there was no sign of him. " . . . somewhere."

Yolei was panicking. She ran around in circles with her hands on her head trying to think where he could possibly have gone. With the ocean on one side, and the cliff on the other he could only have gone in two directions, right? Unless, he went deeper into the cave! Or maybe into the ocean! "Oh, Davis! Something's horrible has happened! Ken wouldn't just leave us here!" She fell to her knees, hands covering her eyes.

"Hey, there he is!" Davis said, excited that he spotted him before Yolei did.

"What?!" At first Yolei thought that Davis was kidding, trying to be funny since it didn't seem like he was worried AT ALL, but as she looked up, she could see a person out in the distance. She got up and ran after him, Davis close at her heels.

As they got closer, they cold see Ken was actually in the ocean, knees deep in the black water, facing the horizon. Yolei splashed into the water. It felt so cold that he legs went numb instantly. "Ken!" He didn't respond to his name. He just stood there. "Ken, what the hell are you doing!?" She went in front of him, blocking his view of whatever he was looking at.

His eyes seemed dead . . . Not looking at her, but more like looking through her. A slow smile came to his lips. A cruel smile, not his smile.

Yolei gasped. "Ken?"

"Yolei!" Davis splashed over. "His eyes aren't glowing right? That's good." He laughed. "We don't want another Kari episode."

Ken's skin was even paler then usual. Yolei lifted a hand to his face, but Ken grabbed onto her wrist, holding it painfully tight. "Who are you, to think you can touch me?!"

"Ken! It's me, Yolei! What's wrong with you!?" He lifted her hand to eye level, and started twisting it. Yolei cried out in pain.

"Ken, stop it!" Davis grabbed onto Ken's shirt and spun him around to face him. Ken let go of Yolei's wrist in surprise and glared at Davis. He lunged at Davis who ducked, but slipped in the water, dragging Ken with him. Ken got his hands around Davis' neck and held his head under the water.

"Ken!" Yolei screamed.

"I am the Digimon Emperor! You have no right to touch me! No right! NO RIGHT!" Yolei tackled him and the both of them fell under the water. Davis broke the surface with a gasp. Yolei and Ken were rolling around in the water in a heap. Davis got up and ripped Yolei away from Ken's hands and pulled her behind him, but Ken grabbed onto Davis's shirt instead and he fell on top of him. Davis rammed him in the head with his fist. Ken kicked him the stomach and rolled over so that he was on top of him. Yolei pulled Ken off and Davis got up, hitting him over and over again. Eventually, Ken became unconscious and Yolei carefully dragged him out of the water.

"He's out cold!" she cried.

"He should be! I only had to punch him about 50 times!"

"Oh Ken!" His face was cold and clammy. Thunder echoed in the dark sky. It almost sounded like a deep laugh, like the ocean was laughing at them.

"It's gonna storm soon. Help me get him back inside the cave." They dragged Ken back inside the cave and laid him down. Rain started to pour hard outside. Yolei sat down and wrapped her arms around her knees, shivering and staring down at Ken.

"What's happened to him?" she whimpered.

Davis sighed. "It's gotta be this place. He said so himself if you don't control your emotions they can take over here. We shouldn't have fallen asleep so fast and let him stay up on his own. He was probably brooding. That's what Ken does. And you, you gotta stop worrying about him. It will affect you too.

"Well what am I supposed to do, Davis?!"

"Don't get mad at me!"

Ken started to shiver, his brow knitted and he frowned as if he was having a bad dream. Yolei took his hand. Davis sighed and sat on Ken's other side.

"I'm serious, though. We have to believe that Ken will get better and not worry about it. Think about happy things."

Yolei was silent.

"Like . . . food . . . Man, I wish I had some noodles right now." Noodles made him hungry so he tried to think of something else. "Or . . . Kari. I wish Kari was here now." No, something else. "Or Soccer! Did you know I shot a goal right passed Ken the other day?"

"He was letting you win."

"Was not!"

"Was too! You're nowhere near as good as Ken is."

"Oh that hurts Yolei," Davis said with mock sadness, placing his hand above his heart. "Right here."

Yolei grinned at him and they waited for the rain to stop.

* * *

"The warriors are going to digivolve the leader!" All the digimon were on the beach with Joe, Cody and Mimi. Gomamon was in the water and Joe was the center of attention. Joe really didn't like being in the center of attention. It made him self-conscious. What if he couldn't make Gomamon digivolve at all? 

"Um . . . so what do I do?" Joe asked Gomamon, looking at his digivice.

"How am I suppose to know?"

"What do you do when you usually digivolve? Do you activate the digivice when there's–"

"No, stupid, you do that. You've done it before."

"But . . . I don't do anything. I just . . ." He he'd held up his digivice. "Nothing."

Gomamon sighed. "This isn't going to go anywhere if you keep acting like this, Joe."

"Fine." He jumped up in the air, landing feet apart, holding up the digivice and cried, "Digivolve!"

He stood like that for a while, but nothing happened. The digimon ooh-ed and aah-ed at this while Mimi covered her mouth and looked away to suppress a giggle.

"Well," she said. "This isn't working. We should probably go." She turned around and started to leave.

"No! This will work!" Joe said, and then his digivice started to glow. When the light and sound faded away, they all looked up to the long necked Plesimon. His white head looked black against the rising sun. He grinned a toothy grin.

Mimi gasped and tried to shade her eyes from the sun as she looked up at him.

He did it? Joe looked around to see everyone staring in shock at his digimon. He did it! He did it, he did it, he did it! He let a cry of excitement at the same time Plesimon let out a bellow as well. Joe ran into the water about knee deep to get a better look at Plesimon. "You're huge! Look at you!" Plesimon raised the long thin fins on his back at the complement. All the digimon were cheering now. A few digimon dragged him out of the water, and soon as he was on the sand again he was bombarded with more digimon cheering for him. It made his face turn a little pink, but he smiled. He looked over at Cody and Mimi. Cody gave him a small smile, his hands in his pockets. Mimi looked pissed off.

Joe went over to Cody. "Well . . . good luck, I guess." Cody mumbled.

"If I don't come back after eight minutes . . ."

"You're coming back," Cody said. "You can't leave me here with Mimi. I don't nearly have as much patience as you." Cody grinned up at him.

Joe smiled and ruffled Cody's hair.

Then he went over to Mimi. She wouldn't look at him. "Mimi . . ."

She looked up. "Oh no you don't Mr. . . ." she didn't know what to call him so she waved it off. " . . .I'm mad at you. I'm not going to congratulate you for this! This is the most stupidest idea you've ever had, and you're gonna kill yourself. And it won't bother me at the slightest because you won't listen to me at all! So, go die! I don't care!"

Joe started down at her. "Mimi?" He breathed deeply trying to think of the words he wanted to say. He took off his glasses, still thinking. "Mimi . . ." he said again.

"What?!"

All confidence died there. "Would you . . . hold my glasses?"

She glared at him and snatched his glasses before crossing her arms in a huff.

He turned around and looked at Plesimon and felt a rush of pride. All the digimon started cheering again as he stepped closer to the water.

Oh man, he was going to die, but instead of feeling worried about it, he was more excited. He felt a little giddy. He just made Gomamon digivolve to his Mega level. Maybe he could do this.

Or maybe he was just crazy. So this is what crazy people felt like.

But this could be his last hour alive. He swallowed hard. If he could make Gomamon digivolve into Plesimon, he could certainly kiss Mimi Tachikawa.

He stopped and turned around, marching right back to Mimi. He put his hands on her shoulders, bent his head down and lightly pressed his lips against hers.

Mimi, surprised, raised her arms to keep her balance. He pulled away without a word and started to march back to Plesimon. Mimi stared after him, not moving an inch.

Cody stared at the two, shocked. Well . . . ok . . .

Joe splashed into the water and then climbed onto Plesimon's back.

"No . . ." The word escaped from Mimi's mouth but no one heard her. "No," she said more loudly. She dashed after him. "Joe, don't!"

Plesimon started to go out to sea.

Mimi stopped at the water's edge. "JOE!"

Joe heard her then and turned to look at her.

"JOE!" she screamed after him, pleading for him to come back, but all he did was wave before Plesimon continued out to sea, and then went under.

They waited for four minutes . . . eight minutes . . . even 10 minutes, but he didn't come back up.

* * *

Tai and the digimon trudged forward, one foot in front of the other. He stared at the sand. Every once in awhile he'd force his head to look up to make sure everyone was keeping up. "Tai!" he looked up at Agumon who was coming from the front of the line. "There's something coming toward us!" Tai jogged up the sand dune to see better. 

"Everyone stay back!" he shouted. "Agumon and Tom will protect you."

Out in the distance was a figure. It looked like a person, hunched over, barely able to keep up right as it stumbled ahead.

"It can't be . . ."

* * *

Every time she fell, Sora would scold herself. She had to keep going. She had to find Tai. She fell again, tasting the graining sand in her mouth. She didn't know how long she had been going. Had she slept at all? She pushed herself up and looked at the horizon. 

Wait . . .

Against the sky . . . could that be . . . ?

She stumbled on. It could be just a mirage, but she didn't care.

Tai . . .

* * *

The figure sped up. Oh no . . . He wasn't ready for this. He wasn't ready to face Sora yet. He hadn't thought of what to say, how to tell her. He didn't want to see her. He didn't want her to look at him. How did she even get here? He took a step back, but he was too tired and shocked on seeing her to really run away. 

Sora ran to him, stumbling and sobbing as she did so. "Tai!"

"Sora, I–" She flung her arms around him and he swallowed down what he was about to say. She burred her face in his chest, her finger digging into his stupid pink T-shirt. Tai took in a shuddering breath. Her arms around him felt good, and he knew he didn't deserve it. "Sora . . ." he started again, but she tightened her grip on him.

"Don't talk, Tai. I don't want to hear it." Matt was dead. Maybe TK was too, since she could see him. Maybe everyone else was also dead. But Tai, Tai was alive. He was right here. She could touch. She could hear his heart and fear his breath. At least Tai was alive.

He put his hands on her shoulders, about to push her away. "But Sora . . . Matt's . . . Matt's . . ." A sob escaped from him, surprising him. Why couldn't he say it? The hands that were meant to push Sora away tightened on her shoulders instead.

"I know Tai. Just don't say it."

"You don't understand, Sora!" He ripped her away from him and held her at arms length. "I killed him!"

"Wha . . . ?" Sora blinked her tear-stained eyes. She was confused. She couldn't believe Tai would kill Matt, no matter how much they fought. "Wha-what do you mean?"

"I . . ." His eyes weren't looking at her, but staring out into nothing, as if reliving it. "He . . . pulled me away. He . . . took the blow . . . instead of me." He remembered the blood . . . Matt's cool blue eyes locked on his. He blinked, trying to block out the images, as he did so tears rolled down his cheeks. "I didn't want him to save me." He sobbed again. "I didn't want . . ." And he was crying. A day and a half later, and he was crying.

"Oh Tai . . ." Sora tried to keep herself from crying as well. "It's not your fault . . . "she whispered. "It's not your–"

Tai pulled her closer to her, greedily talking in her comfort. He pressed her tightly up against him and she rubbed his back. "Shh . . ." she cooed.

She tired to make him stop, but sobs still wracked through his body. She closed her eyes, and a tear slid down her cheek as well.

Tai pressed his face into Sora's neck, trying to make the tears stop falling from his eyes. All he succeeded in doing was soaking Sora's neck. He felt dirty, crying to her when he was the cause of death to her boyfriend. . . to his friend. She should hate him, but here she was, trying to comfort him and he couldn't stop crying.

Sora opened her eyes and looked past Tai's shoulder. A group of digimon stared back her.

"Tai . . . the digimon . . . "

* * *

TK had fallen asleep to the sound of Pegusmon's wing's beating rhythmically. His face and finger's lost within his main. "TK," Pegusmon snorted and shook his head, waking TK. "There's something down there." 

TK opened his heavy eyes and tried to focus them. There was a small dark figure down below.

"Do you want to check it out?"

"Um . . . yeah."

The descended and TK realized that the thing was one of the creatures that had captured all the digimon, the creatures that had that thing that killed his brother. Raged boiled though his body. It tied to run, but tripped over the sand. Pegusmon didn't even touch the ground yet before TK leapt off of him and tackled the creature. They rolled over each other on the ground, the creature screaming as they did so. They stopped with TK on top, his hands around the creature's neck. "Give me one very good reason why I shouldn't kill you!" TK cried as he glared down at the it, his thumbs pressed against its throat. Pegusmon stood a few feet away, his ears flapped once in curiosity.

_The . . . Hope . . . Child . . ._

"What?"

_You have . . . to save her. _

TK loosened his grip on the thing's neck.

_The Queen . . . Queen Kari. The Master has her. We can't disobey him . . . but . . . I . . . want to show you . . . the portal._

It raised its hand weakly and did something with his hands. _You have . . . to promise something before I show you the portal._

"What?" TK asked suspiciously, but he got off the creature anyway.

_If the Master finds out what I've done, he will kill us all. You must destroy me._

"But . . . No, I can't do that." TK sighed.

_You were willing to kill me a few seconds ago._

"I'm sorry. I was angry."

_I am sorry for your loss. Is it true that humans are not reborn?_ TK looked up at the creature, its words tearing a fresh wound inside of him. _I fear pain . . . but not death. I will only be reborn again later. By then my Master will still or will not still have control of me. I do not know if you will succeed or not. But if you don't destroy me, and the Master gets it out of me, he will take it out on all of us. Forever we will be in pain, forever we will be reborn and be in more pain. At least humans have an end._

TK stared at the creature, his hands subconsciously clutching at Matt's digivice. "Ok."

The creature grinned and ripped its claws though the air, opening up the portal. _This will take you to the Dark Ocean_.

TK nodded the looked at Pegusmon. Pegusmon nodded back, understanding. "I'll try to be quick," he said.

He turned to the creature and bowed his head. The creature stood up and closed his eyes before a green bean shot from Pegusmon's head, incinerating it.

TK swallowed thickly and grabbed onto Pegusmon's main. "Let's go."


	15. Chapter 15 Dropping Like Flies

An: ok . . .AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I haven't typed . . .like at all, for months. Basically, I wanted to work on this story since it's the one with least work, but I relized that I don't have an ending and I know that it's suppose to have one. If this story goes one forever, I'll lose my mind. Also now that I have work-gag- school-gag-PSATgag-homework-gag Oh and a new one: I have suddonly become obssesed with Naruto. I just want to know what happens to these sad, poor moronic people and after watching 250,_ 250_ episodes, and still not knowing, I --(insert scream here)

I'm also starting to lose my love for this story. I didn't want to tell you that, because now you'll read it and go "Yep, she's loseing her touch. This one's not that good" But if you forget that, maybe you still think it is good (does mumbo magic hand waves) After. Rereading this chapter (since I'd work on it, get an idea, stop, forget my idea, get a new idea, repeat) I relize it's not that bad. If you like cornyness. I guess I just have to get back in the game. This is a short chapter. Only just about 7 pages. WELL I'M SORRY!! I can't take it anymore!! I just. . .need to think of an and ending.

Chapter 15

Droping like flies

The Master cracked open the door. She was on her knees, her arms on the window sill and her face buried in her arms. She looked up at the sound of the door opening and her cheeks were tearstained. Now . . . Now was the time he could reach her.

**Are you crying, My Queen?**

"What . . . ? Crying, what are you talking about?" she demanded.

He walked over to her and sat next to her. Then carefully, hoping she would not tear his arm off, he brushed a tear with his tentacle, holding up to what light there was. **This, this is a tear. They form when you are in pain. Are you in pain my dear?**

She looked out the window again. "Yes."

**Why?**

"I don't know. The others . . ."

**There are no–**

"_Lies!"_ she cried out. "You are _lying_ to me!"

The Master sighed. **You are right. I am lying to you. I am sorry. I will tell the truth now.**

"You better . . ." she growled. Her digivice flashed angrily.

**The truth is that there **_**are**_** others**. **They are the ones that are hurting you.**

She stared blankly at the wall, trying to let that sink in . . . Yes . . . that might be right. When she thought of the other's she felt pain.

**But this will protect you,** the Master said, touching her digivice.** And I will protect you. You can give me the strength. You have the power to do so. Then nothing can cause you pain.**

She looked at him. "How?"

He smiled. **Through this.** He picked up the digivice.

* * *

Sora wandered down the sand dune. "Tai . . . the digimon . . . They're all here . . ." She collapsed exhausted to her knees.

"Sora!" Yokomon jumped into Sora's arms and the other's who knew her, surrounded her. She held Yokomon close.

"Where are the others?"

"Are they okay?"

"Are they coming?"

The digimon crowed around, anxiously awaiting the news.

"They're fine . . . they're not here, but I'm sure they're coming." Sora thought about how stupidly she had left the others, without warning. At least Izzy could see them with his computer. She saw Tai standing on the sand dune, looking away from them. "Where's TK?" She asked hesitantly.

"He and Patamon went the other direction," said Yokomon. "They're looking for the portal."

"He's by himself?"

"Pegusmon is with him,"

"Yeah . . . but . . . Matt was his . . ." She looked up to see something small and red on the sand. She got up to go to him. Picking Punimon up, he felt impossibly cold for the hot desert sun. "Punimon . . ." she murmured. "What's happened to you?"

Tai walked passed her to sit by himself. Sora stared at his back, before getting the energy to get up again.

She sat next to him, holding Punimon to her chest and stared out the horizon.

"He hasn't spoken since Matt died," Tai said, talking about Punimon.

"It must be hard for him," Sora said.

"He probably hates me."

"Tai, don't say that."

Tai didn't say anything. Sora put her hand over his and squeezed it.

"Blaming yourself for this isn't helping anything. It's making it worse, actually. Matt wouldn't want you to."

"Of course he wouldn't, that damn punk." He dug his fingers into the sand. "And that just makes it worse," he said, his voice uneven.

Sora looked at his profile, but didn't know what he meant. Tai stared hard at the horizon, his jaw locked. She sighed and rested her forehead on his shoulder. She had to find a way to make him feel better.

"You're not helping, either Sora."

She opened her eyes in surprise and lifted her head. "What?"

Tai began to tremble. "I love you, Sora . . . but . . . now that Matt's dead, and you touching me . . . like that . . . it makes me feel . . ."

Sora pulled away. "I'm sorry." They sat in an uncomfortable silence. "Though Tai . . . as hard as it is to believe, and though I know I hurt you so many time and you hurt me, I still love you too."

Tai's insides tighten.

"With Matt gone, I don't love you any more, but I don't love you any less. I just loved Matt too." Tai looked at Sora but she was looking at the ground, tracing her fingers in the sand. "I know that might not make any sense to you. It probably wouldn't make sense to Matt either. I just . . . wanted you to know." Tears started to flow once again. "The best time of my life . . . was when all of us were together. It was the greatest thing in the world and I guess . . ." A sob escaped from her before she could finish the sentence. " . . . it won't happen anymore. But please Tai . . . don't make it smaller by destroying yourself too!"

Tai took her hand as she cried and they leaned into each other. Tai took a deep breath. "Don't cry anymore, Sora. Matt wouldn't like it. He hates it when girls cry. He's a big pushover."

Sora laughed through her tears. "I could practically make him do whatever I wanted."

"Girls were always crying to Matt. The guy's life must have been like enslavement. I think Davis' sister was the worst . . . what's her name again?"

"June," Sora laughed.

"Yeah, it took Izzy and me everything we had to get rid of her! I didn't think a girl could be so determined."

"She doesn't like you, you know?"

"Why not."

"Because you three were awfully mean to her! I can't believe you guys!"

"I was trying to be a loyal friend . . . and I found it slightly amusing, but that's besides the point."

"By breaking her heart?"

"What were we supposed to do?!

"You should have just explained to her nicely that you guys wanted to be left alone."

Tai waved it off. "Where's the fun in that?"

"You two are mean. I can't believe Izzy went along with it."

"He didn't do much; he was just there. Sometimes he'd cover for Matt." Tai smiled at the memory. "It was mostly me and my brilliant mind that had to save poor defenseless Matt." Matt could completely lose his cool when it came to June. He could usually handle girls a lot better then Tai could. Though, Matt never had a problem _getting_ girls. It was keeping them away.

He wouldn't have that problem anymore. Tai wouldn't be able to laugh at that anymore. It made him angry all over again.

"Sora, if I can't hate myself, who can I hate?"

Sora didn't say anything. She didn't have too. Someone had taken Kari, because of that, they were all in this mess. That's why Matt died.

As the two of them stared at the horizon, they both made silent promises. They were going to avenge Matt.

* * *

"I'm bored," Davis said as he stared out into the rain.

Yolei sighed. "I'm bored too."

"I can't believe it's still raining. There's no point for it. There aren't any plants that need water or anything." Davis chucked a rock outside. He stared at the rain for a while before saying, "you know what?"

"What?"

"I kinda have to pee."

"Well, please refrain from doing it in here."

"But it's raining outside!" Davis whined.

"But I don't care!" Yolei said in the same whinny voice.

"Fine, but if I get sick and die, it's your fault."

"Oh, the guilt is killing me."

Davis went outside through the rain to do his business. Just a few feet from the cave, and it disappeared in the rain. The rain was so loud; it was even hard to hear the pounding of the waves of the ocean. Once he was finished, he tried to go to the cave, but must have gotten turned around for he came to the ocean. He was about to go back when he saw something gold flash in the dark waters. He would have ignored it if it didn't look shockingly like a person. He went into the water.

"TK?!" He grabbed TK's shoulders and hauled him out of the water. In TK's arms, which he was clutching desperately, was Tokomon. "Oh man, don't be dead! You're not dead right?! Cause I don't know CPR!"

TK groaned and moved his head.

"Yes! Thank God! You're alive!"

TK forced his eyes open. "Davis?" Davis swept him into a hug. Then dropped him where TK fell into the gray sand.

"What the hell happened!? One second you were there, then you weren't and where's Kari? You met up with Tai and Matt right? Something happened to Matt. What?!"

TK just stared blankly at Davis. Tokomon stirred in his arms.

"He's not dead, right?"

TK continued to stare as if uncomprehending on what he said.

"Oh man TK, say something."

TK swallowed thickly. "Where are the others?"

* * *

Yolei stared at the poring rain. What was taking Davis so long? He probably got lost. Great, now she was going to have to go find him and get soaked.

Ken groaned in his sleep and she went over to sit with him. He kept muttering, "No . . . no . . ." over and over again. She brushed his hair from his forehead. It felt like he had a fever.

Before she could move her hand away, Ken grabbed her wrist, holding it tightly and glaring up at her. She gasped.

"Who are you!?" he demanded.

"Ken, it's me!" He got up, still clutching Yolei's arm. "Ken, let go of me. You're hurting me." He glared out into the rain.

"Where is he?"

"Davis?"

"Where's Wormmon?"

"I-I don't know. We don't know. Probably in the Digital World–"

"You're lying!" He yanked on her arm and her knees buckled. "You're hiding him from me, aren't you? You don't think I'm a good partner. Well he's _my_ digimon! I can do whatever the hell I want to with him!"

"Ken stop it!" Yolei sobbed.

"We're going to find him! You're going to show me where he is!" He yanked on her arm again and dragged her up. Then he started marching deeper into the cave. "You're hiding him . . ."

"Ken, stop!" She cried as she tried to pull away. "We don't know where that leads to. DAVIS!"

But he didn't hear her.

* * *

"TK, are you all right?"

TK got up. "Where are the others, Davis?"

"Well-um . . . Sora went after you guys . . . then Joe, Mimi and Cody went after Sora and Izzy stayed and Ken and Yolei are in the cave, but Ken's out of it--"

"Where's the cave?"

"Um–" Before Davis could finish, TK had already disappeared into the rain.

They reached the cave and TK looked around. Davis shook his head to try to dry his hair. "Oh man, my hair is totally messed up!"

"Davis, they're not here."

"What?! 'Course they are!"

He looked around and TK turned to Davis. "Davis!'"

"Calm down, calm down . . . Maybe they're exploring the cave . . ." As Davis said that, he remembered that Ken was unconscious, but he failed to say so.

"Why would they do a stupid thing like that?!"

"I don't know! Come on, we'll look!" They went after Ken and Yolei into the cave.

* * *

Mimi sat on the sand, totally getting her white mini shirt dirty, but she didn't care. Oh my God, she didn't care! She'd never been this depressed before. Not even Chris made her feel this way. No . . . this wasn't depressed . . . this was the worst feeling in the world; this hallow empty feeling that hurt so much that she wanted to die.

She sniffled as she stared at Joe's glasses in her hands.

Any second now.

Yes, any second now Joe was going to coming back.

She and Cody were the only ones out here still. All the digimon had gone back into the base. Cody was talking to Izzy on the cell phone.

She didn't know what they were talking about. She didn't care about that either, because any second now, Joe was going to come back.

Yeah . . . She held his glasses to her lips and her heart fluttered. He was going to break the surface of the ocean, as the sun set, drops of water dripping from his hair. A smile on his face because he succeeded and had found all the digimon. Then he'd come to her, tall body blocking the sun . . . Then she would slap him good and hard. That's right. He deserved it for being so _stupid!_

Yeah . . . Any second now.

"Izzy?" Cody tried when he turned on the phone.

"Cody?! What's happened?! Oh man, this is bad . . ." Cody's stomach lurched. He had called to see if Izzy could still see Joe on the computer screen. "Two more of you guys are gone!"

Cody swallowed hard. "_Two_ more are gone?" He had prepared himself for Joe, but there was another? They were dropping like flies.

"Joe and TK, they're not on the screen. Joe was with you guys, what happened?"

"He-he tried to . . . to . . ."

"Dammit! I've should have stop him!"

"What happened to TK?!"

"Like I know. He's gone like the rest of them."

Cody tried to keep his knees from buckling.

"Wait . . . that wasn't there before . . ."

"What?"

"Did you know you're by a portal?"

"What!? No! You said there aren't any portals in this location!"

"It's not my fault! They keep popping up and disappearing! This one's in the ocean . . ."

"Joe went into the ocean!"

"Now that you mention it, there's a portal where TK disappeared too."

"So both of them could have gone into the portals?"

"Yes, I guess so. But I don't know where they go too. They're not portals to our world."

Cody sighed in relief. "Do you think the other portals could lead to the Dark Ocean?"

"Maybe . . . but Cody . . . just for a warning, the portal in the ocean is a mile away from the shore line. Did Joe swim there?"

"His digimon digivolved . . . but where he was going should have been straight down . . ."

"I don't know Cody . . . I'm going to call the others. Maybe they found something . . . maybe they've found TK or Joe."

"Ok . . ."

"You two . . . Should probably go after Tai and Sora. The good news is that they are together. Once you've met up with them, I'll find away to take to four home and then I can get you to the Dark Ocean."

"Yeah . . ." Cody hung up the cell phone and looked over at Mimi. "Mimi, we have to go after Tai and Sora."

"No wait! Joe'll gonna be back any second!"

"Mimi, Joe's not coming back."

She got up, turned around and glared at him. After a few moments glaring, she slapped him. "Don't say that!!"

Cody touched his stinging cheek, then glared up at Mimi. Mimi was older then he was, but that didn't give her any right.

Mimi looked horrified of what she had done. It wasn't Cody's fault . . . poor Cody . . . He was only 12 and he was acting so much more mature then she was. Her knees buckled and she broke down crying.

"Mimi . . . he might be all right . . . Izzy thinks he accidently went into a portal."

She sobbed harder.

"I'm not lying! Come on." He offered her his hand.

Mimi looked at it for a moment before taking it. That was right. They had to find Sora and Tai. Joe would catch up. She wouldn't doubt him. He was reliable Joe after all.

* * *

Ken dragged Yolei merciless through the darkness of the cave. Yolie stumbled over the stone floor. She was surprised that Ken could storm through it the way he did.

"Ken . . ." she was getting angry now. "Snap out of whatever the hell is wrong with you." She tried to pry off his fingers from her wrist with her free hand.

"Silence! Unless you feel like telling me where Wormmon is. If you don't tell me, I may grow tired of you."

Yolei rolled her eyes. "Ken, knock it off, or I'm going to have to knock some sense into you. Painfully."

Whatever Ken was about to say was cut off by a series of beeping noises and a flash of green light coming from Ken's pants. Ken stood still, frozen in panic.

"Ken, pick up the phone."

"Wha . . ." he seemed confused. Yolei was glad of that because he had dropped her hand. She didn't know how to make him stop acting weird. She grabbed the cell phone out of his pocket and had her other arm protecting her face incase he decided to hit her.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Ken cried out.

Yolei ignored him. "Izzy?!" she shouted into the phone. "Thank God! Ken's gone PSYCHO!"

"Who are you talking to?!" Ken demanded.

Ken made a grab for the phone but Yolei pulled away. She could make a run for it. It was too dark to see anything in the cave . . .except that the stupid phone was glowing in the dark now that it was on.

She would just have to run fast.

BAM!

Damn, she ran into a wall. Her glasses were gone, too. She found the cell phone and was trying to use the light to look for her glasses. All the while Izzy was screaming "Yolei?! What's happening?!" which wasn't making her blend into the dark all to well.

"Ugh!" Ken tripped over her and they were both on the ground.

They rolled over each other on the ground Ken screaming as if he was in pain. Maybe he was in pain. Yolei didn't know. She couldn't _see_.

This whole thing was pissing her off.

She finally somehow managed to grab onto his shoulders, sitting on top of him. Ken still screaming.

"Ken, shut the hell up! It's me! Yolei! Why can't you remember me?!" Trying to think of anyway for him to remember, she pressed her lips against his. She almost missed since she couldn't see.

Finally Ken shut up.

"Yolei? Ken?"

Was that TK's voice?

"Holy crap!" Davis cried as he tripped over Yolei and Ken. There was a cry from TK as he fell too. They struggled to untangle themselves but somehow they just made it worse. When someone got up, someone else would hit their legs, and that person's knees would buckle and they would fall again. Davis found his face inches from the phone.

"Yolei?! Are you ok?! What's going on?!" cried the phone.

"Hey, Izzy!" Davis said into it. "Every thing's great, what's up with you?"


	16. Chapter 16 Regroup

An: Oh . . .My . . . Gosh . . . great news guys . . . I . . . have seen the ending for this story. I see everything in my stories as pictures, so it's like a movie playing in my head . . . and I have _seen_ the _ending_ . DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?!?!?!?! _I_ have an ending. _I know_ where I'm going in this story!!! Are you guys as excited as I am, because I'm freaking out here. Yep . . .

On a completely random note, I didn't have my computer for two weeks because of viruses, and the lady that had to wipe my hard drive clean, totally messed with my settings. Instead of heading my name on everything, it has my mother's name spelled wrong. When I was trying to fix it, I found out that you can change the color of the bar that's on top and bottom of the screen. Mine used to be blue, but now it's silver and it's so pretty!!!

Chapter 16

Regroup

"Tai! It's the edge of the forest! We're almost there." Sora swayed a little as she talked. Tai took her arm to make sure she wouldn't fall over it.

The other digimon looked adoringly at Sora and Tai. "Thank you for bringing us home." Sora smiled back at them, but Tai looked away awkwardly.

"I guess this is where we part. Agumon and the rest of the digimon that have partners should probably come to the portal with us. I don't know how much power we're gonna need to get Kari back." Tai looked at Punimon. Sora was still carrying him. "We'll take him back to Izzy. Maybe he can fix him." Tai continued through the trees.

Fix him? He said that like Punimon was just a broken thing. Sora turned to the digimon that were leaving and said goodby, before hurrying after Tai.

They stormed through the brush, Sora and the digimon struggling to keep up with Tai.

"We need to find water. Who knows when the last time you've drank anything."

"I'm fine, what about you?"

Tai ignore her, which made Sora angry.

Tai heard the sound of a stream, and rushed over to it. "Here, drink," he ordered her, as if she were a dog being told to sit.

"No," Sora said.

Tai glared at her. She glared back at him.

"_Sora_!" He rubbed his face with his hands.

"Maybe I would if you stop acting like a jerk. You're making the situation worse. When we meet up with the other's, you got to stop acting like that."

"Acting like what!?"

Sora sighed, before kneeling down to the stream and scooping a little bit of water for herself.

"I'm . . . sorry," Tai mumbled.

"It's fine. Drink something."

"I hear someone coming," said Agumon.

Suddenly, something with a pink head and screaming crashed through the brush, flinging her arms around Sora.

"Sora!" Mimi screamed as she took both of Sora's shoulders and shook her. "Why would you do that!? Why would you leave and not tell anyone about it?! You could have been killed!"

"I'm all right, Mimi! I'm sorry!" After Mimi was sure Sora was ok, she ran over to Tai and sobbed into his chest.

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!!!!" Before Tai could react, she was on her knees giving kisses to all the digimon. Then when she was done with that, she took Tanemon and held her and wouldn't let go.

Cody, came a few moments after. "Did you find them? Thank God." He pulled out the cell phone.

"You have a phone!" Tai exclaimed

"Yeah, do you want to talk to Izzy?" asked Cody as he dialed the number.

"Yeah," Cody handed the phone to Tai. "Izzy?"

"TAI! Oh my God, I'm so glad it's you! Are you guys ok? You met up with Mimi and Cody right? This is great! There's a portal that's close by too! This is wonderful! Just take everybody to the coast. You just need to go straight."

"Izzy, have you fond Kari yet?"

"Well . . . we kinda know where she is . . ."

"_Izzy!_"

"Don't worry, Tai. We sent Davis, Ken and Yolei after her."

Tai put a hand on his head. "Ok . . ."

"Let's get the rest of you guys back, first. Then we'll work on getting Kari back."

"Yeah . . . " Tai hung up the phone without saying goodby. "We're going straight," Tai announced and starting marching onward.

"But . . ." Mimi looked up surprised at Tai's harsh voice. "But we just . . ." He was already out of eye-site. Mimi scrambled after him.

Cody looked at Sora. "So is . . . Matt really . . . ?"

"Yeah," was all Sora said before going after them. Cody and the digimon followed.

They couldn't talk to each other very well because they were too busy trying to keep up with Tai, stumbling over the brush and ferns.

Eventually, they came to the ocean. Tai flipped open the phone. "Kay, we're here. Send us back," he said before closing the cell phone. "Everyone stay together so we don't get spilt up."

With a flash of light, the kids and the digimon were back in Tai and Izzy's room. Izzy gave out a cry of surprise as more than he expected materialized out of his computer.

"Tai!" Izzy said with joy. "You didn't say you found all the digimon!" The digimon crowded around Izzy joining in, in his excitement.

"Yeah, they're here. How are we gonna get Kari?" Tai asked impatiently.

"Right," Izzy said, turning back to his computer. "I sent Davis, Yolei and Ken to the Dark Ocean after her. I realized that I could send them through an email reply that I got from those strange emails. I can probably send the rest of you guys the same way. The digimon are going to be a big help incase we need to face off anything that might be in the way. Oh yeah, I called them and TK safely made it there, too. I don't know how that happened." Izzy looked at Tai, expecting him to explain, but Tai was distracted. He was looking around the room as if he was searching for something.

"Where's Joe?"

Mimi made a whimpering sound and covered her mouth with her hands.

"Ah . . . well Joe's missing in action," Izzy said. "He's not in the digital world anymore. I thought maybe he's gotten into the Dark Ocean like TK had, but the other's haven't seen him."

Mimi let out a wail

"What the hell happened to him!?"

"We met up with Gomamon and some other digimon when we were looking for Sora. They said that they thought there were some digimon captured at a base under the ocean. Joe and Gomamon went down to see if they could help," Cody said.

Tai threw his arms up in the air. "That's stupid! That's great. That's just great. He's probably dead too!"

Mimi fell to her knees and sobbed into her hands.

"Tai!" Sora scolded.

Tai looked around the room. Everyone's faces were pointed at him, all except Mimi's her was still crying, but the rest were looking at him. They wanted him to tell them what to do, even the digimon. Tai took a deep breath. If he was going to get Kari back and keep everyone else alive, he was going to have to get everyone's spirits up again.

"Ok, everything's gonna be ok. We'll go into the Dark Ocean, save Kari, find the other's and Mimi?"

Mimi looked up from her hands. Her large eyes wet from tears.

"We'll find Joe, too."

Mimi nodded.

"We're the digidestined. We're _destined_ to do this kinda stuff! We'll be ok." Tai gave a reassuring smile, at least he tried to give a reassuring smiled. It was hard to be reassuring when he himself did not believe his own words. 'They were going to be ok.' Sure they got through things in the past when hope seemed to be completely gone, but one thing was different this time.

One of them was definitely gone. He wasn't missing. He had no hope of coming back. Tai saw him die.

But thinking that way wasn't helping anything. Tai should just stop thinking. It never helped him before.

Despite Tai's lack of confidence, it didn't seem to appear on the outside, for the rest of the group smiled at him. Even Mimi managed a smile through her tears.

"Ok, you digimon, the one's that can, should probably digivolve to Rookie now. It'll save a little time later. You guys ready?"

"Just about . . . I'm going to have to stay behind again. There needs to be someone to attach you guys to the email reply and hit send."

"Oh . . ." said Montimon. "Since I can't digivolve without you Izzy, do you think it'll be ok if I stay here, too?"

"Of course Montimon! I wouldn't have it any other way. You can help me out around here. Actually first, I don't know when the last time you guys have eaten. Take some food with you before you go." Izzy handed Tai a backpack that was packed with food.

"Thanks Izzy."

"Are you guys ready?"

"Actually, can you take him?" Tai held Punimon out to Izzy. Izzy stared at the little red digimon for a moment before nodding.

"Sure, Tai. I'll take good care of him."

Tai gave a small smile. "Ok. We're ready."

They all gathered together and let the light wash over them that would send them to the Dark Ocean.

* * *

"Ok," Davis said, as he looked at the miserable people who sat in a circle before him. They were not happy . . . Which was bad. Not happy was really bad in this dimension. Ken was an example. 

He was sitting on the ground, his eyes downcast. He felt terrible for losing it and wouldn't look at Yolei in the face. This didn't make Yolei any happier

TK was in no greater shape. His brother had just died and Davis though he seemed to be in a bad mood . . . no duh he was in a bad mood, but the fact of the matter was that this was bad. He was staring at the ocean and whenever Davis tried to talk to him, TK would tell him to shut up and be quiet.

None of them where doing anything even though the rain had now stopped.

Davis clapped his hands together trying to get everyone's attention. Nobody looked up. "Come on, guys cheer up!" He squatted down in front of Ken and Davis stuck his face in Ken's. "Turn that frown, upside down!" He pushed Ken's cheeks up to make him smile. Ken glared back at him. "There we go!"

"Cut it out, Davis!" Yolei screamed at him and shooed him away.

"You cut it out!"

"I'm not doing anything!"

"Exactly! None of us are doing anything! You," he pointed at Yolei. "You just keep working about Ken like a mother hen. He's fine by himself!"

"You," he pointed at Ken. "Just keep sinking into your self pity! 'Oh, I'm a horrible person!' news flash, Ken, that was four years ago! You're not like that anymore. This place just makes you think that you are. AND YOU!" he pointed at TK. "Do you want to save Kari, or not!? If you really cared about her, you wouldn't be here, sitting on the ground looking at the damn ocean! And don't tell me you don't, 'cause I know you do! You– Kari–AHHH!!" Davis screamed at the gray sky, pulling at his hair and stomping his feet.

TK blinked at the scene in surprised. It almost made him laugh. He felt as if so much had change, but there was Davis, just being Davis.

Yolei did laugh.

"What's _wrong_ with you?!" Davis cried. This is not funny!

"I thought you were trying to make us feel better," she said as she stood up.

"Oh yeah . . . that was the point wasn't it . . . BUT I DIDN'T WANT YOU LAUGHING AT ME!" He pointed his finger at Yolei.

"I can't help it. You're just an idiot that needs to be laughed at."

"YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE!?" Ken suddenly had stood up, and put an arm on each of their shoulders, a small smile on his lips.

"How old are we?" He looked over at TK who smiled back. "Davis is right about one thing. Aren't we supposed to be rescuing somebody?"

"Aren't I always right?" Replied Davis. Ken gave him a playful shove before offering his hand to TK.

TK took it.

"There we go," Davis said, hands on his hips. This was much better. Now, all they had to do was–

Something blue, and hard ran into Davis' side. "DAVIS!!!"

"AHH! We're being under attack! Quick! Save yourselves!"

"Davis!" Veemon danced around the fallen Davis. "Davis! You've gotten taller!"

Davis got up. "VEEMON!!! It's ok guys! It's only Veemon!"

"We realized that, Davis, when we saw him run in front of us and tackle you."

"Shut up, blonde!"

"YOU'RE ALIVE!!!!" came a high pitch scream and Mimi threw her arms around Davis, pressing his face into her chest so he couldn't breathe. He waved his arms around in a futile attempt to escape. "OH MY GOD! I WAS SO WORRIED I WAS GOING BALLISTIC!" She dropped Davis who fell to the ground again, his face red from lack of oxygen.

TK was Mimi's next target who experienced the same kind of treatment, but then Mimi held TK at arm's length. "AND TK! LEAVING TAI AND WONDERING AROUND BY YOURSELF!!!" She shook him as she screamed. Then she gave Yolei a back breaking hug and went after Ken too, who wasn't expecting it since he didn't think Mimi and he were that close. Though, he should have seen it coming.

TK took a breath. Cody, Sora, and Tai were here, not to mention all the digimon. They were all together again . . . why did he feel like they were missing someone. Matt wasn't here . . . neither was Izzy.

"Hey . . . Where's Joe?" Davis cried out.

Mimi went into a fit of hysterical sobs.

"Davis!" Sora cried. Then she whispered "Don't mention the name Joe . . ."

"Why? What happened to Joe?"

An extra loud wail came from Mimi's direction again.

"He's missing in action," stated Tai. "Is there a place we can make camp? It's starting to get dark and we need a place to plan what to do next."

"Oh . . . ok. There's the cave."

They all walked into the cave to regroup.

"Wait!" Davis cried. Everyone stopped at stared at Davis in alarm. "THERE ARE TWO AGUMONS!!!!" He pointed to the two digimon who blinked back at them. Nobody really seemed to notice the extra digimon and they stared too.

Tai grinned. "Oh yeah. That's Agumon's big brother. We call him Tom."

"Tom?" asked Davis.

"You got a better name, or what?! Sit down and eat something!" Tai tossed him an apple before sitting down himself. "Ok. I'm guessing Kari's in the big black pointy tower thing, right?"

"We assume so," said Yolei. "But we don't really know how to get there. It's on a cliff, and we haven't found away to leave the beach. There are just too many cliffs."

"We could try flying, now that we have the digimon," said Cody.

"That's a good idea," said Tai. "Maybe we can break through a window." He expected Matt to argue with some crap of ruining their element of surprise, but . . . he wasn't here, now was he.

"I thought I did see some windows," said Ken. "There was a light coming out from them."

"Ok, tomorrow morning, we digivolve and fly up to the window, bash the window, bash who's ever in the way and find Kari."

"Wow . . ." said Sora. "Bashing the window and anyone in the way? That's a brilliant plan, Tai."

"Yep," was all that Tai said.

"Great! But why wait till tomorrow?"

"Davis . . ." Tai said between his teeth. "Because I'm tired, the digimon are tired. We have been walking through _a desert _for days. That's why."

"But-"

"Davis!"

"Ok . . ."

"You guys haven't been attacked by anything while you've been here, have you?"

"No," said Ken. "But this place can mess with your mind, so I'd still be careful."

"We'll keep watch just to be safe," said Tai. "I'll go first."

"But Tai," Sora said. "You yourself said that you were tired."

"I'm fine with just watching for stuff." He got up. "Come on guys," he called out to the digimon and Agumon and Tom obediently followed.

Sora sighed. "Well I guess we should get ready for bed then." The all curled up beside their digimon and slept.

* * *

**AAGGGGGHHHHHH!!!! **The Master flung one of his servants across the room and it crashed into the wall. **DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?!** he screamed at his servants. **Not only is Hope in my dimension, but all of them!!! ALL OF THEM!!!**

_Well . . . Friendship has been destroyed . . . _said one of the servants. _And Reliable is missing._

**DOES IT REALLY LOOK LIKE I CARE ABOUT FRIENDSHIP?!? And if Reliable****was reliable to begin with, he wouldn't be missing, now would he?! No . . . it's hope that I want gone. He's the only one that can reverse the process.** He took a deep breath.** Ok . . . If Hope is out of the way, I think the Queen will be able to give me the power to get rid of everyone, but if Hope gets pass me . . . it's too much of a risk. I want you to get rid of him!**

_But . . . we don't have any digimon in this dimension . . . and the human is stronger then us._

**What of the digimon? What level is he at the moment?**

_Rookie . . ._ said another servant.

**The human is what makes the digimon stronger. Kidnaped the digimon while its sill weak. The human boy will be sure follow you. Take him to the caverns. We don't want him near the Queen. I will deal with him there.**

**GO NOW!**

_Yes Master!_ The servants disappeared into the darkness.

* * *

Tai stared out into the ocean. The waves made a rhythmical beat that put a slight pressure in his head. It wasn't enough to hurt, but too much to feel comfortable. He was tired, but he didn't want to sleep. He couldn't. 

Both of his digimon were asleep on either side of him. He patted them gently. At least they could sleep.

He heard a sound and jumped up in alarm. The digimon slumped to the ground without Tai there to lean down. They didn't even wake up and it turned out to just be Sora.

"Can't sleep?" she asked.

"What makes you say that?"

"You haven't asked anyone to take over."

"Oh . . . that."

Sora sat down next to him. "It's kinda cold out here."

"Grab a digimon. They never seem to be cold."

"Hmm . . ." she murmured as she squeezes between Tom and Tai. They stared out into the ocean without saying anything for a while. "I might fall asleep,"

"That's all right," said Tai. "I'll keep watch."

"You'll already doing that . . ."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Hmm?"

"What if I were to ask you . . . to stay behind tomorrow morning?"

"I'd say, 'What the hell? You're an ass!' and 'No way!'" she answered.

Tai sighed. "I thought so."

"You can't protect me that way."

"I know. I just . . . don't know what I'd so if something happened to you too. I'm afraid actually. If I lost you, and did something stupid because of it, who would save Kari?"

"Well . . . one, don't do something stupid."

"Sora, haven't you noticed that stupidity is in my nature?" He grinned.

"You're not dead yet. You can't be that stupid."

"I blame that on luck."

"Well maybe luck's gonna save us again." Sora said. "We're pretty luck kids. We'll get through this."

"Yeah . . . I guess you're right."

"Course I'm right . . ." Sora murmured as she started to fall asleep. " . . . I'm always right."

* * *

TK rolled around in his sleep, lost in a nightmare. He woke up in alarm, searching wildly for his older brother. "Matt?" he whispered into the dark. Then he remembered that Matt wasn't here, and he felt a wave of sad loneliness wash over him. "Patamon?" he called out instead. He got no answer. He looked around him. Patamon wasn't next to him like he had been when he had fallen asleep. He got up anxiously, looking around all the sleeping bodies on the floor of the cave. Patamon wasn't among them. He stumbled outside the cave searching for his digimon. 

Tai looked up when he noticed movement outside the cave. "TK? What's the matter?"

"I can't find Patamon anywhere!" There was a hint of hysteria in TK's voice.

"Hold on a sec," Tai eased Sora off of him before getting up. Sora woke up and sat up as well. Tai walked over to TK. "What do you mean he's not anywhere?"

"I don't know! I can't find him! What if something's happened to him!"

"Shh, calm down."

"Patamon's missing?" asked Sora. "But where could he have possibly gone?"

"We'll find him," Tai said looking around. "Hey, that in the sand, are those tracks?" TK looked.

"Yeah! If we follow them, we might find Patamon!" TK shot off, follow the tracks.

"Wait! TK!" Tai called, before swearing and going after him.

With only a second of hesitation, Sora followed as well, leaving the sleeping digimon outside the cave.

Tai thought he should have caught up to TK easily. All those miles of running for soccer had to be worth something! But Tai was tired from his adventures in the desert and Patamon's disappearance seemed to give the panicked TK super speed. He soon lost sight of him, following the tracks.

The cliffs jutted out into the ocean, ending the beach. Tai stopped, breathing hard, looking wildly around for TK. They were close to the black tower. It was on top of the cliff, high above him.

Where was TK?

Damn, damn, damn! This was making him nervous. Something was wrong about this place. "TK?!" he called. His voice ricocheted off the cliffs.

Sora caught up to Tai. "Did you find him?" she asked.

"No."

"TK?!" Her voice echoed as well. "Wait, Tai, the tracks lead over here. It looks like there's another cave." Tai and Sora jogged over to the entrance of the cave. It was small and concealed away.

Tai called out TK's name again into the cave. He got no answer.

"This is just great!" Tai shouted before going inside the cave, Sora following him, close behind. "He couldn't have just waited for us!"

Suddenly Sora slipped. She grabbed onto Tai's arm with a scream and they both fell. In the dark, they could see nothing, but they slid down a hole, almost as if it was a slide. They landed on something somewhat soft with an 'oof!'

"Ow . . ." the thing they landed on happened to be TK.

"TK!" Tai cried out angrily. "I don't care wherever the hell the tracks lead to, we're leaving this place now!"

"Don't need to tell me twice, but how are we gonna get out?"

"Something smells bad," said Sora. "Like rotten fish."

They fell silent as they heard a squish, and then a small pop getting closer and closer.

Then, **Caught you.**


	17. Chapter 17 Half Plus One

An: Well, I have completed another chapter. I'm getting to end. I'm so excited! I've never finished a story before! My computer's been having virues though .. . again. It's so annoying. And it does the most annoying things. Like a coupple of days ago, I clicked on this wedsite, and it kept bring me to this old book website. I'm like . . ."Wha . . ." But it let me in today, so yay!

Um about Dragomon, did you know his mega form is like the most pathetic mega I ever saw? So, he's not gonna digivole like originally planned . . . because, I mean come on! And I don't know what his attacks look like . . .so I made them up. Oh well, right?

I hope I spelled erveryone thing right . . . which means I probably didn't.

Chapter 17

Half Plus One

"Tai?"

"Yes, TK?"

"You don't have anyway that you can just . . . amazingly make us anywhere, but here, right?"

"No TK."

"Should we run?"

"Yeah . . ."

The three of them spun around and made an attempt to go up the way they had come from, but Sora made a scream.

"Sora!" Tai spun around, but something knocked into him. He fell onto TK and then whatever ran into them, pinned them onto the slimy stone floor.

**My, my, my . . . what do we have here?**

A single torch lit, giving just enough light to be able to see the figure of the creature that held them. Sora was wrapped in his tentacle of an arm, and had been slammed into the wall. The creature put his face close to her, getting a better look at her. His breath stank and Sora tried to crane her face away from him.

**Love . . .?**

Tai and TK were pinned with one of his feet. He knocked Tai away, then grabbed him by the neck with his many fingered hand, raising him to eye level. **Oh, Oh, Oh, and **_**Courage?!**_** I've been looking forward to meeting you. **He slammed Tai into the other wall, then turned his attention to TK still under neath his foot.

**And what is this? Oh, it can't be! Is that Hope?!** He pushed down on his foot and TK gave out a cry of pain. **You're a lot tinier then I thought you'd be.** He pushed again, and TK cried out some more. Sora clawed at the tentacle and Tai waved his limbs around, trying to find away to strike The Master. **So much younger** **then I thought you'd be!** He pushed again. **You're even younger then that poor Friendship creature. He wasn't even strong enough to make it this far!**

Sora let out a sob.

"SHUT UP!" Tai managed to scream, using all the air he could get.

**Oh, I'm sorry . . . , was he a friend of yours? **He gave Tai another slam to the wall, before turning to Sora. **Or perhaps a lover? **Sora got a slam. **Or maybe, he was a BROTHER!** He pushed hard onto TK and TK screamed out in pain, his voice echoing through the cavern.

"Please! Stop hurting him!" Sora Pleaded. "Let him go! You can keep us, if you let TK go! He's only a boy!" If they could get one of them to escape, then someone could get help.

**I'm sorry, my dear, but I won't be letting the Hope boy go. His existence needs to be eliminated!**

Tai reached into his pocket, pulled out Mimi's phone, and chucked it at the creatures head. The impact was nothing and made no damage at all, but it surprised The Master just enough to make him loosen his rip on Tai's neck, allowing Tai to fall to the ground. As soon as he hit the ground, he sprang and tackled The Master around the middle and both of them landed on the ground in a heap. Sora managed to squirm out of the tentacleand scrambled over to where TK lay.

Tai sat on the creature's middle, punching at his head as hard and as fast as he could, his fist becoming bloody as he did so. "I'M GONNA KILL YOU! I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU!" Once the Master overcame the surprise, he grabbed Tai and rammed his head into the wall. Tai blinked as he tried to remain conscious. The creature wrapped Tai in his tentacle and grasped Tai's head with his hand, showing him to Sora. **You know what? I think I'll snap your annoying little neck first, and I'll do it in front of your girlfriend. Do you think you'll mind?**

"Tai!" She raised her arms as if to embrace him, but the Master slammed Sora away with Tai, and started to twist his neck.

"Hey, wait . . ." Tai moaned. "Aren't you worried that you're letting TK get away?"

**What?!**

Sure enough, TK was no longer with Sora. The Master looked around and tried to figure out where he could have gone. The only way out was the entrance that the Master had used. He cried out in anger, and threw Tai, who landed in Sora's arms. Then he stormed after TK.

"TAI!" Sora cried out as she clung to his limp body. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! HE HAS TO WEIGH FIVE TIMES AS MUCH AS YOU!"

"Just . . . part of the plan," he mumbled, breathing her in.

"WHAT PLAN?!"

"The plane I'm making as I go along."

* * *

TK punched in numbers on Mimi's phone as he ran. The only light he had was the glow from the phone and that was only enough light to warn him to slow down so he didn't run into walls at top speed. He still ran into walls, but at least he could slow down a little.

* * *

Ken rubbed his face with one hand and reached into his pocket with the other, pulling out his cell phone. "Hello?" he said groggily.

"Ken!? Are you there?!"

"TK?" TK?! He sat up and looked around. TK wasn't with them. "TK, where are you?!"

* * *

"It's hard to tell," said TK. He had stopped to take a breather, huffing as he leaned against the wall. "It's too dark. . . . I think . . . I think something's chasing me." He looked around wildly, as he tried to see.

* * *

Ken kicked Davis awake.

"Wha-?! I don't wanna join the Marines!"

"Davis!" Ken hissed. "TK's not here!"

"What?! Where is he?!"

"He's on the phone!"

"Gimme that!" Davis grabbed the phone from Ken and shouted into it. "TK! YOU CAN'T GO LOOKING FOR KARI BY YOURSELF!! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU LEFT ME HERE TO GO ON YOUR OWN!"

"Shh, shh! Don't shout, Davis! I think something's after me. I don't want it to find me." TK was huffing into the phone."Patamon's missing so I went looking for him with Tai and Sora and then we were attacked and I escaped, but it still has Tai and Sora and I'm scared, but I think they'll be all right because I think it's after me and it really, really, wants me dead!" TK said in a rush. "Holy freaking crap!"

"What's he saying?" asked Ken.

Davis shrugged and mouthed 'I don't know'.

"Well ask him where he is?!"

"So . . . where are you?" asked Davis into the phone.

"Um . . . well I think I'm in the cliff. We took a right down the beach if you leave the cave. Then at the end of the beach there was this other cave and we went in and there was a drop and now I'm in the cliff! I can't tell you anymore. It's dark here!"

"He's in the cliff," Davis said to Ken. "And Tai and Sora were with him, but not anymore."

Ken swore softly when he realized Tai and Sora were gone as well and then he woke up Yolei. "Help me wake everyone up there's a problem!"

"Oh man what was that?!" TK said from the phone. "Listen, Davis, I'm gonna hang up. I'm making too much noise. Try to find Tai and Sora. Follow my instructions. Don't call me." He hung up.

"Instructions?! What instructions?!" The ones he had given to him earlier?! He hadn't been listening! "TK, wait!" but the phone was dead.

* * *

TK hugged the phone to his chest. All he could hear was his blood pounding in his ears. He tried to calm his breathing.

Then he thought he heard it.

A sucking sound, then a pop and then _squish. _

TK slid down the wall, trying to make himself as tiny as possible, holding his breath.

**Oh where, oh where are you . . . ?**

TK closed his eyes, and he began to relax as he heard the sounds get farther and farther away.

Then something grabbed his arm.

He let out a cry, but it was muffled by a webbed hand. He struggled as the creature dragged him away. He was dragged into a very small room and a torch soon lit up the walls. TK stared into the eyes of one of the Master's servants.

_I've got him!_

_We can't let him die!_

_He's so stupid!_

_We need him alive!_

The creature removed its hand from TK's mouth.

_We need you to save her . . ._

TK blinked.

Don't_ mess this up! Stay here. When it is time, we will show the way. _Don't_ leave!_

_We need to get out of here! He'll find us!_

They scrambled away and TK was left in the dark.

* * *

"I can't believe Tai left without us!" cried out Agumon. "We're _always_ suppose to be together!" Tears threatened Agumon's green eyes, and Tom had a similar expression.

"It's ok," Davis said. "We will follow TK's instructions . . ."

"He left you instructions?!" cried out Yolei. "What are they?!"

"Yeah . . ." Davis said, a finger up in the air.

"You remember right?!"

"Of course I remember! Just let me think . . ."

"Oh great!"

"We go right!" Davis said! "To the end of the beach!" He looked in that direction. "That's near the black tower . . . Come on let's go! Make sure you have your digivices!"

And they all sprinted to the end of the beach.

* * *

"We have to go after TK . . ." Tai tried to get up, but he swayed a little.

"Tai, we can't! Your head is bleeding!"

"Where else can we go? What else can we do?"

"Stay here, and I'll go after TK." She started to leave,

"No!" Tai grabbed her arm. "No, no, no. Stay here . . ." He rested his head on her shoulder.

"Tai . . . wait,"

"What?"

"Shh, what was that sound?"

They held their breath, and very faintly, they could hear voices.

"TK?! TK! TAI! SORA?!"

"Tai, it's the others! DAVIS?! YOLEI!? WE"RE DOWN HERE!"

Tai shushed her. "What if that thing hears you and comes back?"

All of a sudden, Davis crashed into them, arriving from the hole that they had all fallen from.

"OOF!" After the crash they could hear Ken's voice.

"Hold up Yolei. We just lost Davis."

"What do you mean, we lost Davis?!"

" . . . I'm all right . . ." Davis moaned, and when he realized he landed on Tai and Sora, his voice brightened. "And I found Tai and Sora!"

"Thank Heavens!" cried out Mimi.

"Where's TK?" asked Davis.

"The thing that attacked us . . . It want's TK. It went after him."

"Yeah, we got a call from him."

"You got a call from him?" asked Tai surprised. "He must have Mimi's cell phone! Call him! See if he's ok!"

Davis briefly wondered if that was a good idea . . . if TK was still hiding, a ring could give him away. . . but . . . "Ok, I have a phone right here."

* * *

_I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie World . . ._

TK leapt up into the air, hitting his head on the low stone ceiling. "OW!" He grabbed the cell phone, and hit the button. "Dammit, Davis, what do you want!" he cried, rubbing his head.

"That's not a very nice way to answer a phone . . . How did you know it was me?"

"Just a guess," TK winced. He was the only one who would call, when TK specifically told him _not_ to call him! "Ok, Davis . . . I think I have a plan. You have to find Tai and Sora. I think I'm ok now."

* * *

"He says he has a plan," Davis told Tai, covering the mouth piece of the phone.

Tai made an I'm-not-so-sure groan. "Give me the phone." Davis handed it to Tai. "TK?"

"Tai! You're ok! So Davis found you. I love how he tells me these things."

"TK, where are you?"

"I'm . . . not really sure . . . but you know those things that were at the Black Dot Thingy?"

'The what?' Sora mouthed. She was listening over Tai's shoulders.

"Yeah . . ." Tai said uneasily into the phone.

"I think they might be on our side!"

"TK, are you crazy!? They are responsible Matt's death!"

"Well . . . Not exactly . . . but listen. One of them helped me get to the dark Ocean. They want me to save Kari!"

"Dammit TK, it's a trap! Can't you see it?! That guy that attacked us, want's _you_. He hardly cared about Sora and me. Those guys have to be working for him. It all makes sense that way. That way, they can send you skipping your little way to their master, as you'll be _dead_. Just like Matt, TK!"

* * *

TK's hands started to shake as he held the phone. He was suddenly aware of how alone he was right now. He didn't even know where Patamon was.

No Matt,

No Patamon,

No anybody.

Just a pink cell phone with Tai's angry voice coming from it. Maybe Tai was right. Maybe this was a trap.

But even if it was, it didn't change his mind. A part of him didn't even really care if it was a trap. At least then, it would end. He rather go through with his plan, and go with the weird

creatures, then wait for everyone else to save him. They were supposed to storm the tower today, anyway.

"Tai, I'm going through with it. Don't try to find me," and he hung up.

* * *

"TK? TK?! AH! DAMN!" Tai had the urge to break yet another phone, but he gave it to Sora to make sure that wouldn't happen again. "He hung up on me, and he won't tell me where he is! How are we going to go after him?!"

"Tai . . . Maybe when just need to trust TK," said Sora.

"But, he's only a kid!"

"Tai . . . you're only a kid too," but she knew what he meant. To her, TK would always be the baby of the group. Even now, that he wasn't even the youngest anymore, when it all started, he was. "TK's not a little kid anymore."

Tai groaned. "How are we even going to get out of here, then? There's nothing else we can do!"

"Tai!" All their heads turned to the sound of the new voice and they could see Agumon's head peering down at them. "Grab my arms, Tai, and we'll pull you up! It's like a rope of Digimon!" Agumon grinned, and Tai couldn't help but grin back.

* * *

The Master hurriedly went though the halls of his domain. One of his servants ran along side of him to keep up with the pace. **I am not happy,** he stated, which was obvious. **That boy had escaped. I want you to **_**find**_** him, and **_**kill**_** him!**

_Of course, Master!_

**DO IT NOW! There's not enough time. I have to get the power from the queen **_**now**_** or all will be lost. He's somewhere in the caverns. He can't have gone far. GO NOW!**

The servant scrambled away.

The Master went into his room, and found his box. Opening up, he carefully took out the egg. **The time has finally arrived,** he said to the egg. Then he went to his queen.

Opening the door, he hid the egg behind his back.

"What is it?" asked Kari.

**It is time,** was all The Master said.

"What's behind your back?"

**Oh, that's nothing.**

Kari could feel the heart beat coming from the egg. It was so familiar . . . "It's not nothing . . ." she said, trying to see through the Master so that she could see whatever it was.

**My Queen,** The Master took Kari's face in his cold tentacle. **You must listen to me. It is essential if you want this to work. You want to get rid of your pain, right?**

Kari hesitated. "Yes . . ."

**Good. **He brought the bowl of water in between them. **Now, put your hands into this, and think of light.**

Light? There was so little light in this place. She hardly remembered what it looked like. She closed her eyes and tried to remember what it was like. She pictured an angel, with long blonde hair, flying gracefully.

Light glowed from the digivice around her neck and her hands in the water. The egg behind The Master's back began to crack. He held it tighter.

The light suddenly exploded, hitting The Master. He was rammed into the wall and Kari's head went back. She slowly was raised into the air, and she stayed like that, hovering in the air, light coming from her body.

**Yes . . .** said The Master. He could feel the power shine into him from the light. The thing he was holding had hatched now and was struggling in his grasp. It whimpered. He squeezed it to make it silent. He couldn't let that thing ruin his plans now . . . now that he had gotten so far.

He lifted his hand to his mouth and bit off one of his tentacle fingers. He spat out the finger, which wiggled around on the floor. Another finger grew in its place and the finger on the floor, with the light shining on it, started to grow as well.

It soon grew into another one of him. **Good,** he said as he looked at himself. **Take this thing away. Make sure the Queen doesn't see her**. He put the small white creature into the hands of his other self. Once the other self was gone, he bit off another finger.

* * *

Tai squinted as he walked into the morning light. He saw the window on the tallest part of the tower start to glow. "I guess it's starting." He looked at the rest of them all lined up before him. "Man. We're missing almost half of our team!"

Davis made a head count. "Actually . . . we need to lose _one_ more person to be missing half the team . . . so I say, we throw Yolei into the ocean."

Yolei glared and rammed Davis' head with her fist.

"Seriously guys . . . What was the plan?"

"I believe it was, digivolve into flying Digimon, bash the window, bash who's ever in the way, and find Kari," supplied Sora.

"Right," said Tai holding up a finger. "Agumon, Wargreymon. Oh, Veemon and Wormmon!"

He clapped his hands together. "You guys can digivolve together to make Imperialultramon! Good, Good . . ." Though saying that, it reminded him how Omnimon could no longer exists. "You two are the only one's that can still DNA digivolve, so we're counting on you. The rest of you, Hawkmon to Halsemon, Palmon to Lillymon, Biomon to Garudamon and Armadillomon to Digimon. He has wings, right?"

Cody nodded.

"Ok, good. Tom!" he looked at the other Agumon. "Have you ever gone to a higher level besides Champion?"

Tom shook his head.

"You think you might want to try Mega?"

Tom nodded his head yes.

"Good, cause we're gonna need all the help we can get."

They all took out their digivices, and the Digimon digivolved.

"Are we ready?" asked Tai.

"Um, Tai," said Davis.

"What?"

"Is it just me, or does the wall of the tower look like it's moving?"

Tai turned around and squinted at the tower. It did look like it was moving. As Tai looked closer, what look like millions of spiders were climbing down the tower from the glowing window. One let go and landed right in front of Tai, sand flying from the impact.

It was a Dragomon.

**Hello,** it replied

"We're here to get my sister back!" cried out Tai. The two Wargreymon's growled behind Tai, holding their cannons at the ready.

**I'm afraid I won't be giving her back . . . or . . . . more **_**we**_** won't be giving her back.** More Dragomons landed beside him.** She is our queen** **and she lives here now.**

"What?! Give her back! Or we'll fire!" All the Digimon got ready to their attacks.

**I wouldn't think that would be a good idea if I were you,** said one of the Dragomons. It started to look like it was coughing something up, then it pulled a long trident out of its throat. **For we are prepared to fight to keep our Queen . . .**

The other Dragomons did the same thing, and each had a trident.

**FORBIDDEN TRIDENT! **And a beam was shot in Tai's direction.

Then it started.


	18. Chapter 18 I'm a Barbie Girl

An: . . . . DIE POP-UPS!!

Chapter 18

I'm a Barbie Girl

TK sat there alone in the dark, thinking. Now that he had decided on what he was going to do, things seemed much easier.

Of course, he was counting on a lot of help from these servant people, since quite frankly, he had no idea what he was doing. They would bring him to Kari, right? Then what? He'd bring her back home. But what if she was hurt, or locked up somewhere and he couldn't get her out. Well . . . maybe the servants could be of further help . . . and he did have a cell phone.

But what if the servants didn't know anything. What if they didn't even know where Kari was? What if they didn't even come back and he was left here forever?!

His breath came out faster at that thought. He really wished he could see. Every once in awhile he thought he heard something, or saw something and it would make his heart race for a second, but it was nothing and he would then calm down.

Something grabbed his arm and he screamed.

_Shush! Be quiet!_ Hissed the creature, its red eyes glowing in the dark. _You come with us. Don't make a sound!_

TK nodded and let himself be lead away. The creatures led him through the dark tunnels, seeming to see just fine, though TK couldn't see anything. "Um . . . have you guys seen my Digimon?" TK asked.

_Shh! Don't talk! They might hear you!_

"Who are they?" TK whispered.

_The Master, he's multiplying!_

Oh great . . . TK thought, more things that wanted to kill him.

It started to get lighter, but only slightly, and the walls looked less natural.

_Hurry. We are out of the caverns! You'll save our Queen, and give her back to us._

"Whoa, whoa! What? I'm going to take her home after I save her."

_No, we still need her._

_Don't worry. We will take good care of her._

_We need her to be able to defeat the Master._

_The _Masters.

"No, no. I have to take Kari _home. _What do you need her for anyway?"

The creatures stared at him for a moment before one of them said slowly, _She needs to stay with us and be our Queen . . ._

TK crossed his arms. "No,"

The creatures stared at him a moment longer, before crying out, _Get him!_

TK's eyes went wide for a moment when he realized how the tables had turned, then he sprinted down the hall, the servants on his tail.

* * *

Both Wargreymon made a dive at Tai, trying to protect him from the beam. The beam hit Tom, and the force of it sent him crashing into Wargreymon, the two Digimon forming a crumbled heap. Tom got up shakily and shook his head. "Ow . . ." he moaned. Some of his armor was cracked, but Tai couldn't see any _serious_ damage.

"Ok . . ." said Tai as climbed out from underneath Wargreymon. "This means war, man."

The Dragomon aimed their tridents.

"Um guys," Tai said over his shoulder. "We might want to retreat for like a second . . ."

The Dragomon fired and the Digimon all grabbed their partners, leaping into the sky to avoid the hit. An annoying little factor though, was that the Dragomon seemed to have ugly red wings attached to their backs, and they shot up into the air after them.

"Shit . . ." Tai swore as he sat on Wargreymon's shoulder.

"Tai," Wargreymon said. "You might want to hold on tight."

"Yeah," was all Tai said as he grasped Wargreymon's horns and they twirled in the air, trying to dodge the millions of beams that were being sent at them.

Tom shot at the Dragomon, trying to fend them off.

"Ken! Davis!" Tai shouted as he found himself next to Imperialultramon. "We need a plan!"

Davis nodded. "Yeah, that's a good idea."

"Have any suggestions?"

"Um, no . . ." Ken said.

"Yeah, I'm out, too," said Davis.

"What? Come on guys! You don't have any ideas at all?!"

"Don't get killed," said Ken

"I like that one," agreed Davis.

Tai sighed in frustration and they were forced to move away from each other as they tried to escape the beans. He bet Matt would have had a plan . . . Tai would not have listened to it of course, but Matt _would _have had a plan!

The Dragomon were getting tired of long range attacks, and a few of them charged at Wargreymon. Wargreymon blew up the first one with his cannon, but to Tai's horror, he saw all the little pieces of Dragomon grew into yet more Dragomon.

"Shit again!"

"That's not good, is it?" asked Wargreymon.

"Guys!" Tai called out, as Wargreymon flew away to get to the others. "Guys! Don't shoot them! They just multiply!"

* * *

Izzy lay on his back on the floor of his room.

"You could try calling them again," said Montimon.

"I've already called them three times. They're not answering. Something has to be happening! And I'm stuck here . . ."

Montimon sighed and rested his head on Izzy's chest. "I know what you mean . . . I guess there isn't a way that we could get ourselves there . . ." Montimon blinked as he looked at the computer screen. "Hey, what's that red dot?"

"Red dot? What?" Izzy sat up and looked at the computer screen. Out in the ocean of the Digital World, was a red dot, but before Izzy could click on it, it was gone. "That was weird . . . You think it's worth calling the others?"

Montimon held up the phone with a smile and Izzy took it.

"Hello? Yeah, it's me again. . . calling for the 30th time and wondering where the hell you guys are . . . or EVEN IF YOU ARE ALIVE! Though I doubt you will pick up in the next 20 seconds so I'll just say it now. We saw a red dot on the screen, like one of us was back in the Digital World, but only for a moment. Just wondering if it was one of you guys . . . or someone else. Call me back when you can." Izzy hung up the phone. "Yep . . ."

"Hmm . . ." Montimon frowned, and sat down on the floor. His eyes landed on the tennis ball that Sora had thrown in the room about a week ago. Montimon picked it up.

"I haven't gotten any strange emails in awhile either . . . I guess I don't have to keep them anymore." He started to delete them until a message popped onto his screen. "Your delete box is full. Please empty your trash before trying to delete any more items . . ." Izzy read out loud. "What the heck," Izzy said. "It's not like I have anything else to do." Instead of emptying the trash though, he went through each item one at a time, and doing it that way. It was a long process, but he wanted to waste time and do something with his hands. "Hmm . . . What's this?" Izzy opened up something he didn't recognize. "Oh my God . . ."

* * *

TK ran blindly down the stone halls, having no idea where he was going. He was hoping that maybe he'd run into Kari, though why she would be free to wander the halls was beyond him. She had to be here somewhere though, right? Why else would the creatures have brought him here if it wasn't to find the queen.

He stopped suddenly when he heard someone in front of him. The creatures came to a stop behind him as well.

Suck, pop, squish,

_It's one of the Masters!_

_We are done for!_

_Run_!

The creatures disappeared into the shadows and TK looked around him in a panic. He saw a door beside him and wrenched it open, slipping inside.

Once inside he started running. It was pitch black, and after a couple strides, he slowed down a little, into a walk. Was this a room? Or was it a hall way?

He heard the sound of chains and he let out a cry of fear before covering his mouth.

"TK, is that you?"

"PATAMON! I am _so_ happy that I found you!" he went over to where he thought her heard the voice, but tripped over something that made a loud squeaking sound.

"TK, are you ok?! I think you stepped on Snowbotamon!"

TK moaned as he pushed himself from the ground. "Who?"

"Snowbotamon! Kari's Digimon at the lowest level!"

"What?! Kari?! That meant she had to be around here somewhere, right?"

"TK?"

"Where are you? I can't see."

"I got a chain on. I think Snowbotamon is free. They don't think she's much of a threat."

"Ok, I'm going to dedigivolve you so you can get free. Then we have to find Kari." He took out his digivice and a flash of light spread throughout the room for in an instant. He briefly saw where Snowbotamon was cowering in the corner. Tokomon scrambled out from his chains, and TK carefully picked up Snowbotamon. She whimpered a little, but did not struggle. "Ok, let's get out of here. I hate not being able to see." He cracked the door open, holding Snowbotamon in his arms and Tokomon at his feet. "You see anyone?" TK whispered.

"No," answered Tokomon.

TK slowly left the room, looking both ways down the hall. Snowbotamon started to struggle.

"What? What is it?" TK whispered. He put her down and she started to go down the hall. "Go that way?" asked TK still in a whisper. "Ok then," He picked up Snowbotamon up and started down the hall.

* * *

Mimi whimpered as Lillymon kept her hand over Mimi's mouth. "Shh, Mimi, they're going to find us." Lillymon peered over the rock they were hiding behind. Lillymon had flown Mimi up to the cliff. Dragomon were flying everywhere, but they were too high for the Dragomon to see them. Lillymon had her cannon at the ready. They had tried to stop shooting them when they realized the Dragomon were only multiplying, but it was better to blast them away if they had too. It gave them a few seconds to escape to a new location. Though, it wasn't really helping them any. They were just buying their time.

Lillymon spotted Cody, Yolei and their Digimon, at the bottom of the cliff, hidden behind a wall of rock. "Mimi," She grabbed Mimi and slid down the wall of the cliff with the others.

"Mimi! There you are," Yolei whispered. "Have you seen Sora?"

Mimi whimpered in no.

"Great, Ken and Davis are being stupid!" Yolei said angrily. "They are out there trying to 'distract' them away from us! I haven't seen Tai in a while either . . ."

Imperialultramon was dancing around in the air, dodging beams and fending off Dragomon.

"That's it. I'm going out there!"

"Yolei," Cody hissed. "You're not going to make things better!" but Yolei was already on Halsemon and was flying in their direction. Cody rammed his head on the rock wall.

* * *

"Row, row, row, your boat, gently down the stream! That's how it goes, right, Joe?"

"Plesimon, could you really just be quite, I feel like I'm going to hurl again."

"Hurl away, Joe. Hurl away. I really don't mind."

"Yeah, I've noticed," said Joe as he lifted his arms from the water. "Can you imagine what all this sea water is doing to my skin?"

"Actually, I don't think I ever thought of what sea water did to your skin before, Joe," said Pleasimon.

Joe groaned in answer. "How did we get lost? HOW?! We got the captured Digimon free, accidently get lost. Get un-lost, bring the Digimon to the surface, lose the Digimon and get lost again!"

"Well, I told you Joe. We're not in the Digital World any more."

"How? _How?!?_"

"We must've swam into a portal after we freed the Digimon."

Joe moaned and rammed his fist into the dark water. "What are the chances of that happening to us?!"

"I don't know, Joe. I never thought about that either. Hey look. There's land."

"Pleasimon, if you say that you see land one more time–"

"I mean it this time, Joe!"

Joe sat up on Pleasimon's back and looked out into the horizon. He thought he could see things flying up in the sky. He hadn't seen a living thing since they had found themselves in the black water. "Are those birds?" asked Joe.

Something suddenly slammed into the water.

Something big.

A small tidal wave crashed over Joe and he had to grab onto Pleasimon to stay on his back. Once the water subsided, Joe sat up. "Well, good thing I can't see anything without my glasses, or I might be scared out of my pants."

"Joe!" A hand grabbed onto Joe's arm and Joe gave a not so manly scream. "Joe!" Davis was suddenly there, pulling himself up behind Joe. "Welcome to the Dark Ocean, were the very air tries to suck the happiness outta ya and things that are butt ugly try to kill you."

"Davis?!"

"Oh and Ken's around here somewhere too!" He fished around a little in the water and pulled Ken up.

"Davis! Imperialultramon's still down there!" Ken said once he could breath.

"Got it," said Pleasimon. "Hold on tight." He dived under the water. Imperialultramon was sinking with a rather dumb look on his face. Seeing Plesasimon though, he grabbed into the Digimon's long neck. Pleasimon pulled the large Digimon through the water until Imperialultramon could walk on the ocean floor. He then walked to the shore, their heads breaking the surface.

* * *

"DID YOU SEE THAT?!" cried Yolei as she jumped from Halsemon. "THEY JUST CRASHED INTO THE OCEAN! WHAT DO WE DO?!"

"Hold on," Cody said looking over the rock wall they hid behind. "There's something surfacing . . . looks like Imperialultramon . . . and something else that's pretty big."

"I'm going to kill both of them!" Yolei cried out, running to them. "Halsemon, cover me!"

"What!?" Cody cried out, as Yolei dashed over the sand to the water. "That girl has way too much energy for her own good . . ."

Mimi blinked as she looked at the other creature that had surfaced the water . . . It looked so familiar. She suddenly bolted toward the ocean as well.

"Mimi!"

* * *

Yolei reached them, taking Ken by the shoulders and giving him a look over. "You're ok!" She gave him a quick kiss. Then she took both him and Davis by the shirt. "YOU TWO ARE BOTH MORONS!"

"But look what we found," said Davis motioning to Joe.

"Joe! You made it!" Yolei said happily. "We're in kind of a pickle."

"Yeah . . . I kinda got that," Joe said as he brushed the wet hair out of his eyes.

"JOE!" He turned his head at his name and squinted his eyes. He could barely see something pink getting closer to him. That pink thing suddenly ran into him, arms and legs wrapped around him and a tongue was shoved into his mouth. They fell into the water and Joe was too surprised to do mush of anything.

His head was ripped from the water and he could barely see a fuzzy image of Mimi's face before she was kissing him again.

"Oh Joe!" she cried out, shoving his glasses onto his face. "Look! I held your glasses! I kept them safe and made sure nothing bad could ever happen to them!" She sobbed. "I thought you died! I thought–!" She flung her arms around him and sobbed into his chest. "DON'T EVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!!" and she sobbed harder.

Joe blinked a few times. There were water droplets on his glasses so he still couldn't see very well . . . but he was pretty sure Mimi had just thrown herself at him . . . He awkwardly patted her back with an arm.

Cody caught up, huffing from his run.

"Man!" said Davis. Yolei kisses Ken, Mimi kisses Joe, _you're_ not going to kiss _me_, right?"

"Um . . ." Cody puffed. "No." He gave Davis a weird look.

"Good answer, good answer!"

The Dragomon seemed to sudden realize that they were all standing in the open and started to fly to them, charging up their tridents.

"Uh-oh," said Davis, but a Wargreymon suddenly flew over them, letting out his attack. The other Wargreymon guarded another side, and Garudamon went to the remaining side.

"Ok," Tai said as he leapt off of Wargreymon and stumbled a bit on the landing. "I've successfully discovered a new plan, so don't panic yet." His eyes fell on Joe. "Joe! Your back! Good . . ." He thought harder. "Good . . . this is good." Mimi let Joe stand up, but soon had her arms around his middle again.

The Dragomon shot beams at them, but the Digimon reflected them with their own attacks.

"Ok," Tai said. "I found out, if you obliterate them, like really obliterate them in the shade, they won't multiply. As long as they're not touching the light that's coming out of that tower, they'll stay dead. That means we need to get them in the shadow that the cliffs give. _Don't_ go flying over the ocean. Davis and Ken, I saw that stunt. It was stupid. Don't do that again. Joe. Good, Joe!" He patted Joe on the back. "I'm really glad you're back. Ok, Joe, if you can get as many as you can to follow you, and you swim _behind_ the tower, there should be shadow over there. Cody, change Digmon into Submarinemon and go with him. Kay guys when only have a certain matter of time, because when it gets to be afternoon, the sun's going to facing the cliff, so there won't be any shadows left. You guys got that?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good, ok let's go!" They all jumped to their Digimon and rose to the air. Joe gave one last kiss to Mimi, before returning to the water.

Maybe they're get somewhere now.

* * *

"Where are we?" asked Tokomon.

"I don't know," said TK looking around. "It kind of looks like a dinning room." TK looked at the plates which all had dead fish staring back at him. "Hungry, Tokomon?"

"Not really . . ."

"Yeah, me neither. Did you hear something?" They all stood still, trying to listen . . . then . . .

_I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie in a Barbie world._

TK winced as the loud ring tone echoed throughout the empty room.

_Made of plastic, it's–_ TK answered the phone and squatted under a chair. _"What?!"_ he hissed into the phone.

"Yeah, listen Mimi, you know about that whole . . . break up thing . . . well, yeah . . . I'm gonna tell the truth. You're pretty hot . . . ok you're really hot. So wanna keep doing that whole . . . make out thing in my car . . . and Jess's got the party Saturday night. Were you invited? What am I saying, of course you were invited so–"

"Who is this?!" asked TK, confused.

There was a pause on the other end. "Who is _this_?"

" . . .TK . . ." TK answered.

"Well this is Chris, Mimi's boyfriend! And if you're with her now, I'm gonna pound your little-" TK hung up the phone, stuffing it in his pocket as he heard something enter the room, and he, Tokomon and Snowbotamon crawled under the table.

To TK's horror, about 20 of 'The Masters' walked into the room, and pulled out each a chair.

**How are you today Master?**

**Very well, thank you Master.**

**Are you hungry, Master?**

**Absolutely starving.**

**Man . . . I get a kick with talking to myself.**

**Attention, attention! I would like to give a toast . . . to our Queen . . . our source of power.**

Kari was their source of power? So . . . if he took Kari back . . . then these guys would lose all their power and they could easily beat them off. If only he knew where Kari was . . .

_I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world! _

TK's eyes went wide . . . Oh no . . .

**What was that?**

TK fumbled for the phone in his pocket, but by the time he had his hand on it, one of the Masters was looking right at him. TK froze for a second.

_Made of plastic, it's fantastic!_

TK grabbed Tokomon and Snowbotamon under each arm and scrambled from under the table.

**HOPE!?**

_You can brush my hair, undress me anywhere!_

TK ran down the hall.

"Shut it off!" Tokomon cried.

TK's arms were full and the phone was still in his pocket, so he kept on running.

_Imagination, life is your creation! Let's go, Barbie! Let's go Barbie! Oh! Oh! Oh!_

TK managed to get to his pocket, with both the Digimon in his arms. "Hello?!" he said as he ran.

"I said I'm gonna pound your little ass off! I'm gonna totally kill you!"

"No need!" TK huffed. "I'm already dead. Please don't call again."

* * *

"Hey, ass faces! Come and get me!" Davis shouted.

The rest of them looked on from the cliff.

"Why is it that DAVIS IS DOWN THERE!?" Sora cried out.

"He volunteered," Tai said simply.

"One of these days, you guys are going to get that kid killed!"

"Don't worry. It's all part of the plan." Sora glared at him. Tai had Tom down there as well, hidden in the shadows, just in case Davis wouldn't be able to doge something, Tom would be able to shield him.

The rest of the Digimon were at the ready. "Ok," Tai whispered. "When I say go. Don't hit Davis, but don't worry about him either, Tom will get him out. Ready?"

Davis hit the cliff wall.

"Go!" The Digimon drove from the cliff, and the digidestined ran from the edge.

The ground shook from the impact that the Digimon made, and the kids stumbled. "Keep going!" Tai pushed Sora ahead of him.

Then something happened, that Tai didn't expect. He thought that the Digimon would keep the Dragomon busy enough . . . He hadn't expect some of them to completely ignore the Digimon and fly up the cliff. Some of them were shot down, but a few made it to the top, and swooped down on the defenseless digidestined.

"The rocks!" Tai cried, and they ran to hide behind the rocks that jutted out at the top of the cliff.

One of the Dragomon landed, then pointed his trident at Sora, who happened to be the closest.

"No!" Tai ran after her, Yolei at his heels. He pounced onto Sora, knocking her out of the way and the beam hit the rock floor.

Sora and Tai laid there for a moment, catching their breath . . . then they heard the cracking of rock, as the edge started to break away. Tai threw Sora away from him, into Yolei as he began to fall.

"TAI!" Yolei held fast to Sora as Tai fell out of sight.

Tai was falling . . . the Digimon didn't know . . . he couldn't even see them, because they were in front of the cliff, and he was more off to the side, the cliff the shape as it was.

Well this was it then.

He rolled over a little in the air, so that he was facing the rocks that he would soon crash into. They were black. All the rock here was black.

At least it will be over soon . . . just like it was for Matt.

A small grin formed on his lips . . .

Then impact.


	19. Chapter 19 The Begining of the END

An: Well . . . my original plan was to stop working on this and go to Zelda since the page count was brought back up, but I did realize that I left on a cliff hanger . . .on a cliff . . .get it? hahaha Well, anyway . . . and I I'm almost done with this story, so I'll just stay with it till it's done. I've been working, like two sentences on it, all week, and I had a snow day today, so I'm updating. It' beena good week. I don't know why. It started with a 66 on my math midterm, but I've been in a very good mood. So .. . here's the next chapter. I'm off to type the next one.

Chapter 19

The Beginning of the END

But impact was a bit sooner then he expected . . . and he didn't feel it at his face, but more around his neck and arms . . . as if his shirt was being yanked up. Then he was falling upwards . . .and when you think about that, that just really didn't make sense.

He landed on something hard, and he was soon peering through a pair of metal ears. A pair of arms wrapped around his middle to keep him in place as they flew through the air.

"How many times do I have to save your ass? Come on, man!"

Tai's blood froze at the familiar voice.

"_This_ is exactly why your plans suck. You're all about the offense and you forget about the defense and people could get hurt!"

They flew around to a small ledge at the side of the cliff. As soon as Metalgarurumon landed, Tai scrambled off of him, spinning around and taking a few more steps backward, gaping at the guy still sitting on Matalgarurumon's back. He grinned at Tai.

"How . . ."

Matt dismounted. "Long time no see, right?"

Suddenly Tai rammed his fist into Matt's face. Matt stumbled backwards, holding his jaw. "Tai, WHAT THE HELL?!"

"DON'T YOU WHAT THE HELL ME! _I'M _THE ONE THAT SHOULD BE WHAT THE HELLING!"

"Since when did 'what the hell' become a verb?"

Tai grabbed the front of Matt's shirt, which had no blood on it from when Tai had tied it around Matt's wound. There wasn't a scratch on him.Then Tai rammed him into the rock wall. "You're dead! I saw you die! Don't tell me it didn't happen! If you are an impersonator, I swear you've picked the wrong guy to impersonate!" Tai brought back his fist.

"Tai! Tai! Tai! It's me! Ask me a question or something! I have a younger brother named TK! I have a band called the Teenage Wolves! My parents spilt up when I was little. You and me were in a fight about Sora. I met you seven years ago and for some weird reason, we're best friends even though you're being AN ASS!"

Tai put his fist down, but his eyes still narrowed. He rammed Matt against the wall again. "Then how is it that you're alive?" he said through clenched teeth.

"Maybe if you guys answered the phone, you would know. Could you let go of me?!"

The phone? He went into his pocket and took it out. He had 13 messages on it. He must not have heard them because they were fighting the Dragomon. He turned it on and put it to his ear.

They were from Izzy.

1. "Hey guys . . . I just wanted to ask you to call me before you do anything big. I can't see you on the screen any more now that you're in the Dark Ocean instead of the Digital World. . . . So just give me a heads up, you know."

2. "I guess you guys didn't get my message. That's all right . . . unless maybe you haven't actually done anything yet . . . though I'd hope you'd call me if that was it."

3. "Ok, you guys have to be doing something now. Hello?"

4. "Great, I'm totally missing what's happening!"

5. "Even though you're probably busy . . . and all . . . you do realize I'm calling right? I can understand why you haven't picked up because you're fighting or something, but if you have a spare second, CALL ME! I don't even know if you guys are still alive or not!"

6. "I've come to the conclusion that maybe you lost the phone. Good job, guys. Good job."

7. "Or you guys are dead. PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD! I'm sorry for my sarcastic comment!"

8. There was a pause, then a click as the phone hung up.

9. "Hello? Yeah, it's me again. . . calling for the 30th time and wondering where the hell you guys are. Or EVEN IF YOU ARE ALIVE! Though I doubt you will pick up in the next 20 seconds so I'll just say it now. We saw a red dot on the screen, like one of us was back in the Digital World, but only for a moment. Just wondering if it was one of you or . . . someone else. Call me back when you can."

10. "GUYS! GUYS! Ok, I was going through the trash . . . because I'm bored out of my mind, and not the trash, trash, but the one in the computer. You probably knew that already since, why would I be digging through any other trash? Well anyway, I found something from the Digital World. I'm not really sure what it is, but I'm gonna play with it. I'll keep you posted."

11. "OH MY GOD, I THINK MATT"S ALIVE! CALL ME BACK ASP!"

12. "Ok, you're going to get a kick out of this." Izzy laughed. "You know how Digimon can't really die? It's because their data gets recycled, right? But that only happens if they're in the Digital World. Remember Wizardmon? He never came back because he died in our world. It's the same with us! If you die in the Digital World, your data just goes some place else! Matt's been in my trash the whole time!" Izzy laughed a little hysterically out of relief. "That was a close one right? Oh by the way, that only works in the Digital World, so don't die in the Dark Ocean."

13. "Hellooo . . . Matt's right here. Like right next to me!" Izzy's voice became quieter as he talked to someone else. "See? I told you they won't pick up."

Then there was another voice. "Let me see that," and Matt's voice was on the line. "Yo, pick up . . . I'm not leaving till someone picks up this phone."

"See? They're dead."

"They're not dead . . . they're just deaf. HELLO!?" There was a pause. "Ok, I'm going in there."

And then the messages ended. Tai slowly lowered the phone from his ear.

"You believe me yet?"

Tai didn't move. He just stood there, staring into space. Matt shoved him off of him.

"Ok, I sacrifice myself to save your sorry ass, come back and save it again, and what do you do? You hit me!" Matt touched his lip. "Look, I'm bleeding!"

"Matt . . ." He took a step closer.

"_Don't_ . . ." Matt said with a finger in the air, "hit me again!"

Instead Tai pulled Matt into a hug, surprising him. Matt grinned and patted Tai on the back. Tai took Matt by the shoulder and shook him. "Dammit, Matt! Dammit!"

Matt laughed and let himself be shook. "Yeah . . . Damn . . ."

"Don't do that to us again, Matt!"

"I promise that I won't intentionally get impaled . . . again."

Tai cracked a grin. "Man, Sora's gonna kill you . . . Sora! We have to get back to the others!" Tai grabbed Matt's arm and ram over to Metalgarurumon.

* * *

"SORA! STOP IT!" Sora struggled to get away from Yolei. 

"TAI!" Sora sobbed, elbowing Yolei in the face.

Yolei let out a cry of pain, letting go of Sora, who rushed to the edge of the cliff. "KEN! HELP!"

Ken tackled Sora, stopping her from jumping off the cliff as well. Yolei and Ken dragged her away from the edge and behind a rock.

"What happened?!" cried out Mimi, noticing Sora's tear stained face.

Sora let out another sob and doubled over onto the ground. Yolei laid a hand over her back, ready if she tried to bolt again. Rocks flew around them as the fight moved to the top of the cliff. Tom found them, and started to guard them, letting out blasts from his cannon at the enemy. Davis hopped off of him.

"Oh man, are you guys all right?!" He took a look at Sora. "Is she ok?! Is she hurt?! Where's Tai?!"

Where was Tai?

"He went over the edge!" Yolei cried.

Davis stood there shocked, attacks zipping by him.

No . . .

"No!" The Digimon fought harder. "Take them back down the cliff! Back down the cliff!" Davis started running back where the fight was suppose to be, in the shadow of the cliff.. He got the Dragomon's attention, then jumped off the cliff, Imperialultramon catching him in the air. "Shoot 'em down!" he cried. They twirled around in the air, Davis directing Imperialultramon as they went. They dodged beam after beam, flipping through the air.

But then one hit Imperialultramon, and Davis lost his balance . . .

His body slammed into something hard and somewhat cylinder, his limbs wrapping around it instinctively. He open his eyes to see a black hole.

"Um . . . Davis? You might not want to stick your face right there. . . ."

Davis lifted his face from the barrel of Omnimon's cannon and sat up, riding it like a horse. He twisted around to see Tai and Matt lazily sitting on Omnimon's shoulders.

"TAI! MATT! HOW-?! I THOUGHT YOU TWO WERE _BOTH_ DEAD!"

"Yeah . . ." said Matt. "We decided to come back, 'cause being dead is pretty boring."

"All you do is lay around and do nothing all day. No fun," agreed Tai. They brought Davis back to the top. Omnimon let loose a few blasts down the cliff, while the three boys got off.

Sora could believe her eyes when she saw them. Both Tai _and_ Matt were climbing off of Omnimon, a smile on both of their faces. It was like a dream . . .

"Sora? What's the matter?" Yolei asked, but then Sora bolted again. "Ken!" But Ken wasn't quick enough to catch her.

She ran, sobbing, to them, flinging an arm around both of them. She gave each of them a wet kiss, before crying into both of their shoulders. She didn't know how. She didn't care how. But they were both here. She had both of them back, and that was all that mattered.

* * *

The team had managed to all get into a cave, the big Digimon blocking the entrance with their bodies. They couldn't stay here long, for the Digimon could only hold out for a certain matter of time. 

"Ok . . . So in other words, we have to kill them in the dark . . . sounds kinda creepy," said Matt.

"Well, that plan failed. We only got like half of them," said Tai.

"What if you don't keep shooting them. What if instead you suck 'em up like Magnaangelmon can do?"

"Because we don't have Magnaangelmon!" Tai answered. Matt had noticed that TK wasn't here, but he had assumed he was with Joe and Cody on the other side of the tower . . . but that didn't make sense . . . . TK didn't have a water Digimon.

"Well, where the hell is he?"

"He's pulling a Matt and getting himself killed."

"Where is he?!"

"I don't know. He won't tell me. When I called him, he hung up on me."

"Gimme the cell phone!" Tai gave it to Matt. "What's the number?!"

"He has Mimi's cell."

Matt dialed the number. "I'm gonna kill him!"

* * *

_I'm a Ba–_TK turned off the damned cell phone.

* * *

"I'm not getting anything!" Matt cried out. 

"Is it ringing?" asked Tai.

"I thought it was, but it's not anymore."

"I hope my phone's not broken . . ." mused Mimi.

"What the hell is he doing anyway?!" cried Matt angrily.

"Remember those things that captured all those Digimon? He's with them. He says they're on 'our side'."

"What!?"

"I know!"

"I'm gonna more than kill 'im!" Matt bit his lip worriedly. It was dark in here. . . . He hoped TK was safe. TK had always been a little uneasy in the dark. . . . "Wait a sec . . ." he said. "The light from outside is what giving these things the power to multiply, right?"

"Yeah. . . ."

"What if we get them all to come in here?"

"What if we get them all in here . . ."

* * *

Izzy came into the room with a bunch of things from the kitchen. "Um Izzy . . . what are you doing?" asked Montimon. 

"We're going to the Dark Ocean!"

"How are we going to do that?" asked Montimon, still holding the tennis ball.

"With our brilliant minds," Izzy answered, taking the tennis ball. "I've actually thought this up while I was doing nothing for long periods of time in here. All we need is for someone to hit the send button. _One_ button." He bounced the ball. "So we're going to hit it. Help me out here."

Izzy and Montimon starting making a long ramp that circled around the room in a spiral. "The tennis ball will hit the mouse once we're in the computer. But we need some time, before that to actually get attached to the email, so the ball has to go around the room a couple of times." The ramp was made up of a combination of cutting boards, serving plates and other varies flat things, taped together with duct tape.

Izzy tried a few test runs. Sometimes the ball missed, sometimes the ball hit, but it moved the mouse off the send button. Then it hit.

"Montimon, we got a winner."

"What if it doesn't work when we're in the computer?"

"Then we'll just try again and again!"

"Oh . . .kay," Montimon sighed. The whole contraption seemed strange to him, and it just seem to show how bored Izzy must have been.

"Montimon, release the ball!" Montimon let the ball go down the ramp. Izzy held up his digivice to the computer screen, grabbing Montimon. They disappeared into the computer. The ball rolled down the cutting board, into the serving place, in and out a bowl, down a spatula and so on until it hit the mouse.

"Message has been sent."

* * *

Joe and Cody were doing okay. Staying close to the tower's shadow wasn't all that difficult and it was easy to hide under the water's surface, for not much light could penetrate the dark water, and when the Dragomon dove in the water after them, they could not multiply. The only real problem that they had was the amount of space they had as the shadow began to shrink, and Joe could stay under water for long periods of time. Joe was frequently aimed at every time he had to surface and almost had his head blown off multiple times. 

That, and the Dragomon were starting to get a little smarter.

Joe was _beginning _to get nervous.

"Ahh!" He was on Pleasimon's head so it would harder for the Dragomon to hit for the brief moments Joe had to breathe. Joe clung to his head as Pleasimon flung to the side, trying to avoid the beams. "THERE'S GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY TO DO THIS!"

To Joe's surprise two Dragomon were blown away by two balls of electricity.

"Yes! Man, that felt good," said Izzy, sitting on Megakabuterimon.

"Izzy! Watch out!" Joe cried, before Pleasimon pulled Joe back under.

"What? Whoa!" Megakabuterimon swerved out of the way from the counter attack. "Joe!" Izzy cried out the next time Joe surfaced. "Is there a plan?"

"Plan?!" Joe was under water again and Megakabuterimon was flying as fast as he could _away_ from the Dragomon. Him and Izzy were an easier target than Joe.

Megakabuterimon circled the tower, trying to buy some time to think of an escape. After a few circles Izzy unexpectedly found himself next to Garudamon and Sora. "Sora?"

"Izzy!" Sora laughed, her face flushed with excitement. "How did you get here?" Sora seemed to be enjoying herself . . . which was weird since they were being chased by evil Digimon that were shooting beams at them. "Never mind, have you seen Joe and Cody? Matt's got a plan!"

They caught Joe on his next surface. "Joe, get Cody!" Sora said in a rush as they flew by him. The next time around Submarinemon and Cody were above the surface. "Dedigivolve!" Sora cried out again and once the Digimon were small enough, Sora and Izzy dove down, Sora getting a hold of Joe who carried Gomamon and Izzy getting swooping up Cody and Armadillomon. Joe clung tightly to Sora with one arm and to Gomamon with the other, screaming as Garudamon spun around in the air to avoid the shooting beams. Sora was laughing, her hair flying around her.

"Sora . . . are you feeling all right?!" Joe couldn't see how anyone could possibly find this enjoyable.

"I feel great!"

"Are you, by any chance, high?"

Sora laughed again. "What could I possibly be high on, Joe? Oh, and Matt's not dead!"

"What?" Sora gave Joe a kiss on the cheek in her happiness and gave a kiss to Gomamon too.

"Sora! Where are we going?!" Izzy cried from Megakabuterimon.

"Oh, to the cave! Follow Garudamon!" They sped through the air, the Dragomon hot on their tail. "There! There's the cave!" They could see Omnimon and Imperialultramon standing in front of the cliff. The two Digimon parted and they flew into the cave. Omnimon and Imperialutramon closed the opening and brought up their guns. There was a huge explosion as their shot hit the Dragomon and Sora, Joe and Izzy winced as they flew into the darkness of the cave.

"Nice, Sora! I bet we just go rid of about 50 of 'em!" They could hear Tai's voice in the dark.

"Whoo!" Sora cried out, giving a bow, though no one could see her.

"Hold on . . . Matt's not dead?" Joe asked.

"What?!" cried out Cody.

"Yeah, I'm all right," Matt said, not paying attention. He was brooding, chewing on his finger. He had already tried to explain his rise from the dead multiple times and he was worried about TK. How could Tai be so stupid as to lose him?

"But . . . how?" asked Cody. Izzy began to explain how he found Matt in the trash can. Then he had to explain to Tai how he had gotten into the Dark Ocean with out someone else to hit the send button.

Tai laughed. "Izzy you are brilliant . . . And, speaking of people who are brilliant, Matt's come up with a plan."

"_Matt's_ come up with a plan?" asked Izzy in surprise.

Tai shrugged. "It's an ok plan."

Matt was suddenly awakened from his thoughts. "What?! What plan?!"

"The _plan!_ Making the Dragomon come in here so they don't multiply by the light? I'm giving all the credit to you."

"I thought I was just stating a obvious fact. It's _obvious_."

Tai ignored him. "Omnimon, how things looking out there?"

"They've stopped trying to get in," the big Digimon answered. "They're waiting for us to come out."

"Hmm . . . we need to get them in _here._" Omnimon and Imperialultramon separated ans light shined into the cave. They couldn't see the Dragomon from the cave.

"Not to worry, not to worry," said Davis. I know how to handle this . . ." He ran outside, spotted the Dragomon sitting on top of the cliff and cried out, "HEY, ASS FACES!" He gave out a cry and hardly dodged 20 beams before running inside. "Hey . . . they didn't follow me in."

"I believe your ass face insult has run out of juice, Davis," relied Ken.

"They're getting smarter . . ." Tai said. "Matt, there's a flaw your plan!"

"It wasn't a plan! It was a thought!"

"Damn . . ." Tai put a hand to his chin and started to think.


	20. Chapter 20 The Plan

An: Well . . . this is the last chapter. OMG! IT'S DONE! MY FIRST FINISHED STORY!!!!!! Besides that poem thing . .. but that doesn't really count. I am SO happy that this is over. I didn't even have to kill myself. Yes . . .The plan . . . it's a stupid plan . . . but creative I think. You have to give Tai some credit. He hasn't slept in I can't remember when and he's overly giddy that Matt's not dead. So this what I came up with.

Chapter 20

The Plan that was Made After the Other Plan which was Made When the Original Plan had been Changed Due to the Change of Circumstances. Yes . . . _That_ Plan

TK took a deep breath. Tokomon had digivolved to Angemon just in case. They were pretty sure they had lost the Dragomon that had been chasing them . . . of course now TK was lost. He set Snowbotamon down and slid to the floor trying to catch his breath. The stone on his sweaty skin made him feel cold. The fear and the doubt were at the back of his mind, slowly eating away at his confidence. It was darker then it was before. He could only see Snowbotamon and Angemon because they were white, and even then they were just a white mass. He couldn't make out any details. Every sound made him jump, and he had trouble from keeping himself quiet. He didn't want the Dragomon to find him, but the silence and darkness made him want to scream in terror.

Snowbotamon made a squeak. "Shh," said TK, but when he looked down at Snowbotamon, she was no longer there. "Angemon! Where'd she go?!" TK scrambled in the dark for a while before he heard her squeak again. Following his ears, he found her small white form. "Snowbotamon," TK whispered. "What's wrong?"

Snowbotamon scrambled away, and TK followed her through the darkness. Hopefully she knew where she was going.

* * *

After a few tries of trying to lure the Dragomon into the cave, all of them failing, Tai sat at the base of the cave. The sun was at its peek in the sky. There were no more shadows, and the Dragomon weren't stupid enough to fall into the shadows again, even if there were . . . Or go into this cave. He had to make them stupid again. What did the Dragomon want so badly that they'd do something stupid . . . like run into the cave? 

Tai's eyes landed on Matt's blond hair.

"I got it!" Tai cried, jumping up in the air. The others looked at him, excited. He grabbed Matt's shoulders. "What do these guys want more then anything else?"

"Um . . . to make us all dead?" answered Matt.

"But who do they want dead the most?"

Matt gave a vague head gesture. "I don't know."

"TK!"

"WHAT!?"

"When he, Sora and I met with one of them, the thing hardly cared about Sora and me, but he wanted TK dead!"

"Tai, the more you talk, the more I want to rip your head off! How could you just leave TK, when you know that most of the population in this place wants him dead?!"

"Calm down. It's ok, because we are trying to _trust_ TK on what he's doing . . ."

"TRUST?! TRUST HIM!? HE CAN'T CONTROL WHAT COULD HAPPEN TO HIM!" Matt grabbed Tai's shirt.

"The plan?" Izzy asked quickly, before Matt and Tai could get violent.

"Yes the plan . . . The guy we met definitely knew Matt was dead . . . but these haven't seem to notice him. I mean they've seen Omnimon . . . but I don't think they've actually seen you . . ." Tai said, motioning to Matt.

Matt was busy glaring at Tai.

"You and TK look a lot alike. What if we make it look like _you're_ TK and they'll all chase after you into the cave, just like how that one went after TK and Sora and I were able to escape?"

"HE WENT AFTER TK!?"

Tai ignored Matt's panicking. "But how are we going to make you look like TK . . ." He snapped his fingers. "TK wasn't wearing his shirt, remember? You ripped it in half to make shoes. So we'll just rip your shirt, and maybe from the sky . . . you'll look just like him!"

"No!" cried out Matt, still angry about his brother.

"If only we had Patamon . . . if he was with you, you'd really seem like TK. How can we make it look like you have Patamon . . . ?"

"Are you aware how stupid this plan is to begin with?! And how exactly are we _ever_ going to find TK?!"

"Patamon's orange . . . orange . . . what is orange . . ." He looked at Wargreymon. "Tom! No wait . . . Tom's too big when he's Agumon . . . but Agumon!" He looked at Omnimon. "But then I still need Omnimon . . . wait . . . IT ALL MAKES SENSE!!" Tai cried out waving his arms in the air and dancing in a circle. The other's stared at him oddly. "Omnimon, dedigivolve. Tom, digivolve with Metalgarurumon."

"What?" cried out both Tom and Omnimon.

Tai held up his digivice. "Just do it. Come on Matt, this won't work without you."

Matt stared at Tai. "I'm pretty sure you've lost it . . . No wait. I'm definitely sure you've lost it. How is this going to solve anything?!" But despite his words he held up his digivice. They made the switch, and Tom was now part of Omnimon.

"How do you feel?"

"Awkward," replied Omnimon.

"As long as it doesn't affect your fighting . . . and it's only for a little while. Wargreymon, dedigivolve."

Wargreymon turned into Agumon with a frown on his face. Why did Tai switch him with Tom?! He was supposed to be Omnimon with Metalgarurumon! "Cheer up," said Tai. "You are so important in this plan. _You_ are Patamon."

"But I'm Agumon."

"Not anymore." Tai looked at the others, holding Agumon's head in his heads. "Does anyone else see it?! His head is the perfect size for Patamon!" Agumon blinked. "Mimi! What do you have in your purse?!"

"Huh? Oh well, um I have a mirror, some brushes, eye liner, mascara, lipstick, blush, eye shadow, face cream . . ." She said as she rummaged through her purse.

"Good, good. Bring it over here." Tai took the purse from Mimi and dumped the contents onto the ground. He found the white face cream and spread it over Agumon's head, trying to make his head look more like Patamon.

"Um . . . is Agumon's skin dry?" asked Mimi. Sora saw what Tai was doing and picked up eye liner, drawing in where Patamon's eyes would be, then coloring the irises with green eye shadow.

"Ta-da!! Patamon!" Tai declared.

"But he has a whole Agumon body attached to him . . ." Matt pointed out. "And he doesn't have any ears. He doesn't look anything like Patamon!"

"We'll make ears," Tai said.

"How?! With what?!" Matt cried.

"Orange . . . orange . . . " Tai's eyes landed on Davis. More specifically, on his orange shirt. "Davis, shirt!"

"Wha . . . ?" Davis said dumbly, touching his shirt.

"Take it off!" Tai said impatiently. Tai bullied Davis out of his shirt. Once the shirt was in Tai's possession, he went to Omnimon and ordered him to cut the material into a zigzagged pattered with his sword. The others watched Tai, wondering if Matt was right in that he_ had _lost it. Then Tai took a pack of gum that was in Mimi's purse and gave a piece to Davis. "Chew man, Chew!" Of course Davis did what he said, and Tai started to chew a piece too.

"Tai, what are you doing?" Matt asked, more calmly now hoping he might get an answer if he tried this approach. Instead he was silenced as Tai held up a finger and concentrated on chewing. He spat his gum into his hand, and then he held his other up for Davis. Davis spat his piece into Tai's hand as well. Then Tai attempted to stick the fabric of the shirt onto one of Mimi's brushes-since she had more then one- with the chewed gum.

Mimi cried out when she realized what Tai was doing. "EW! I DON'T WANT THAT BACK!" She was very glad that she remembered to bring an extra brush . . . until Tai did it to that one too.

"Look! Wings! . . .Or ears!" He waved them around like flags, and with the air going through them, they did look a little like Patamon's wings. Matt stared at him unimpressed. The more Tai did with this plan, the more ridiculous it seemed. Tai turned to Agumon, holding up one of the brushes. "Now . . . we need to stick this to your head."

"What?!" exclaimed Agumon at the thought of stabbing his head with the brush handle.

"Oh, sorry." Tai held up both of the brushes. "We need to stick _both _of these in your head. Well maybe you could just hold them up with your hands."

"Not only is that not going to happen, but like I said before, there's no way they're going to miss the bright orange body that's attached to his head!" cried out Matt.

"We'll camouflage it with sand! When can get him wet so that it sticks! I don't think these guys can see very well to begin with. Their aim is terrible if you haven't noticed and when we met that one in the caverns, he had to stick his face close to us to tell us apart. Besides, they'll be up the air. They won't be able to tell the difference!"

"Sounds good to me," said Davis

"But–" Tai interrupted Matt.

"This is what we'll do. Omnimon and Imperalultramon will stay in the cave, because they're our power. They'll be the ones to actually get rid of the freaks. The rest of you guys . . . are going to get out of the cave, fly up to the top of the cliff – when I say go, because the evil guys are up there now and we have to make sure they're gone – but once you're up there, start attacking the rock, so that the rocks fall and trap the creeps into the cave. That way they can't escape. Matt and Agumon will be the ones to lead them in."

"Um . . . Yeah . . ." Matt said, still glaring at Tai. "You know even if that worked . . . WE'D BE STUCK IN THE CAVE TOO!"

"I got it covered . . ." Tai said with his hands up in the air. "We can send Digmon underground in there and get you guys out. The Digimon can dedigivolve so that they can fit through the hole . . . Then you guys climb out to freedom."

"That's brilliant!" Davis cried.

"Yeah . . . it is . . . especially since I'm sleep deprived . . . the only flaw I can see is the small chance of Matt being injured when th Digimon are fighting . . ."

"Hahaha . . . Tai, I'm going to kill you," Matt said with a fake grin.

"We'll vote on it. If majority doesn't agree, we'll think of something else."

About five minutes later, Matt found himself shirtless at the mouth of the cave standing next to a sand-covered Agumon. Everyone had gone for Tai's plan. Even Sora, though she was a little hesitant at first. Yep. If Matt didn't die . . . again, Tai was going to.

"Agumon, remember to keep your mouth and your eyes closed. You look freaky with them open. You won't be able to see, but follow the sound of Matt's voice. And keep flapping your ears. Don't let them fall flat for a second. And Matt, try to make your hair more like TK's."

"_No_ one is touching my hair! You," Matt said pointing at Tai, "get away from me!"

"And remember to act like him."

"I don't know how to act like TK!"

"You're his brother! You should know him better than anyone!"

"And what's Agumon? Patamon's cousin?"

"Bloom Bubble!" Agumon cried, trying to imitate Patamon.

"Good! But . . . Don't talk," said Tai. "Okay, Matt just say, 'Patamon, how about you digivolve using the _hope_ crest!' Emphasis on _hope_ because that's how in identifies us."

"That's stupid! TK would never say that!"

"But_ they_ don't know that. And your voice is too low, TK's voice isn't as low as yours."

Matt glared at Tai."I can't make my voice higher without sounding like a retard."

"Try. And don't get zapped, 'cause they're gonna zap you. You have to run back in here as fast as you can, but not too fast because you want them to notice 'who' you are. Are you ready? IS EVERYONE READY?!"

"Tai?"

"Go! GO!"

Agumon sped out the cave at the first go, but Tai had to push Matt on the second. The Dragomon didn't seem to notice Matt and Agumon at first, because Tai had been right about their poor eyesight, and they weren't paying much attention to begin with. So Agumon started running around in circles around Matt with his eyes closed tight. Matt was giving Tai a 'what-the-hell-now!' look.

"Say it!" Tai answered in a loud whisper.

Matt rolled his eyes. "Hey Patamon!" he said in a failed attempt to make it sound like TK's voice. "How about . . . we do something . . . with hope . . . Patamon, where are you going?" He said as Agumon started to drift away from him with his eyes closed.

"Say it louder!" Tai whispered some more.

The Dragomon heard Matt and turned their attention to him, expecting to see Davis, but instead they saw the light coming from the tower, hitting golden hair. They hesitated . . . was that the hope child?

Matt let his head fall back in exasperation and the Dragomon saw blue eyes.

**Hope!** one of them cried, and they all tried to zap him.

"Ah, damn!" Matt cried out, grabbing the blind Agumon and running for the cave.

**Get him!** cried the Dragomon and they dove from their spot on the cliff.

"NOW!" shouted Tai, and the Digimon and their partners shot out from the cave, right past the Dragomon who was intent on getting Matt. They waited until all the Dragomon had flown into the cave, then the Digimon attacked the mouth of the cave, closing up.

_Yes! _thought Tai, feeling even _more_ giddy now that his stupid plan had worked. Suddenly a Dragomon came out of nowhere. Megakabuterimon tackled it into the dark ocean where Pleasimon could finish it off.

Huh . . . They must have missed one . . . But then Tai realized they hadn't. More were just coming from the tower. They were multiplying in there and they couldn't stop them.

They would just keep on coming . . .

* * *

It was getting lighter and TK was feeling a lot better. Not to say he still wasn't nervous. He was just happy that he could see his hand in front of his face now. TK was still paranoid though, and had Angemon digivolve to Seraphimonjust in case. TK's mood was affecting Seraphimon's mood as well. If anything snuck up on them, Seraphimon would blow whatever it was up . . . including the wall and whatever was in the way, hopefully not TK or Snowbotamon by accident. 

They slowly but surely followed Snowbotamon up the tower, the light getting brighter and brighter, Seraphimon's foot steps making clinking sounds as they went. TK could see a door at the end of the steps. He stopped Seraphimon. "I'll go in. I'm quieter,"he whispered. "If I scream . . . come get me." He picked up Snowbotamon and cracked open the door.

The light was blinding, but once TK's eyes became used to it he could see something on the ground. The Master was cutting his finger and letting it grow to another one of him. Then that other one would move to the window and fly away.

There was something floating and glowing in the middle of the room. TK's heart went up when he realized it was Kari.

There she was!

He tried to wave, to get her attention but she continued to glow and float. He guessed he should probably get rid of The Master . . . but The Master seemed awfully big and Seraphimon seemed awfully far away. What was making Kari like this? How could he snap her out of it? He bit his lip. Kari was still possessed looking. He could stop her at the lake, how was he going to be able to bring her back here?

The Master, by chance, happened to look in TK's direction. TK screamed and bolted as The Master tried to make a grab for him. TK ducked as Seraphimon sent out his orbs that exploded on impact. It was only here that TK realized that if you attacked the Dragomon, they would only multiply. He switched directions, and ran back to the room where Kari was. Once they were inside, Snowbotamon suddenly digivolved, skipping all her levels, straightto Magnadramon.

The room was a little too small for Magnadramon, so only part of her was in the room, the other half was trying to keep the Dragomon at bay.

"Kari!" TK cried out once he was in front of her. She turned her head to him at the sound of his voice, her eyes glowing. TK took a step back as she looked at him.

She raised a perfect eyebrow, as if trying to decide what this creature was. Kari? What did Kari mean?

"Kari . . . ?" TK said even less sure of himself now. He raised a shaking hand to her. "Kari . . . let's go home . . . okay?"

Suddenly one of the Dragomon escaped from the two Digimon and grabbed TK by the neck, pounding him into the wall, strangling him. TK tried to struggle, but the Dragomon was stronger then he was.

Too much was going on. There was fighting just outside the hall with things that Kari did not recognize. In front of her, The Master was hurting another creature that she did not recognize. Why were they here?! The Master said everything would go away! She didn't like this.

A wave of light came from her, solidifying and pinned everyone, including the Digimon in the hall, to the wall. Silence enveloped the room as Kari slowly set her feet back to the ground.

**My Queen . . .** started the Master, but she didn't want to hear it. Everything he said never made any sense. She glared at him, and the light pinning him to the wall started to burn him. He screamed in pain, cracks forming in the walls. He couldn't multiply because the power that allowed him to do that was the very thing destroying his being. Eventually, The Master was nothing more then dust that blew away from the wind that came from the window.

TK sighed in relief and looked at Kari, but as Kari turned her gaze to him, a searing burning hit him as well. He cried out in pain. "KARI! STOP IT!" She only narrowed her eyes at him and the pain increased, more cracks forming in the walls. He cried out louder and Seraphimon struggled against his bonds. "STOP IT!" TK sobbed, a small tear trickled from the corner of his eye. "Stop it . . . why are you doing this?"

Why was she doing this?

Why?

The question surprised Kari. _Why_ was she doing this? She didn't know why . . . Her confusion caused her to release her power and the bonds disappeared. TK crashed to the ground. As soon landed, he pushed himself up and ran over to Kari, flinging his arms around her shoulders.

Kari froze, confused and frightened. What was going on?

"Kari, to got to snap out of it," said TK in a hoarse whisper. "This isn't you. You're not acting like yourself!"

She wasn't?

TK held her tighter. "We have to go back home, back to the people that love you. Tai misses you. He's going berserk, and Davis too, and everyone else. Kari," He took her face in his hands, staring into her glowing eyes. "Come back, please. We need you to come back. Come back to me."

She started to shake, tears forming in her eyes. She blinked, and when she reopened them, instead of glowing, they were chocolate brown again. "T-TK?"

"Yes?!"

She flung her arms around his neck and started to sob. She was still shaking so TK held her tightly, trying to make her stop.

"I'm so scared!" she cried out into his chest.

"It's all right now," he said. "It's . . . all right."

"TK!" Seraphimon said as he finished off the Dragomon that The Master managed to create before he died. "I think the tower's unstable from the fighting."

Magnadramon curved her long body around TK and Kari. "Yeah." TK let go of Kari and Kari let go of him just long enough to let him climb on. Then she climbed on behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her face into his back, trying to block out everything. Once they were on, Magnadramon let out a spiral of fire from her mouth, exploding a hole into the roof to make their escape.

* * *

Tai heard a crash and looked in the direction of the Tower. The light had stopped glowing. The Digimon that were outside the cave were fighting the new Dragomon, and as Tai watched closer, he could see they were no longer multiplying. Before Tai had time to be excited, the sand he was standing on started to sink. He cried out and briefly thoughthe was randomly sinking in quicksand before he saw the drill of Digmon. "Drilling through sand is a lot different than dirt," said Digmon. 

"No kidding," said Matt, coughing up sand as he tried to find solid ground again. He was followed by Gabumon, both Agumon, Wormon and Veemon. He grabbed onto Tai's shirt. "Did the plan work? Because if it didn't, I'm going to strangle you till someone rips me off of you, or you're dead."

"Um . . ." Tai briefly thought of telling Matt the truth. His plan didn't really work, but it was ok, because the Dragomon weren't multiplying anymore . . . but . . . Matt still might strangle him for making him go through the plan for nothing . . . "Of course it worked! Do you see any more bad guys?"

"Good," Matt said, still trying to catch his breath. "You live for now."

"Here's your shirt back," Tai handed Matt his shirt, who used it to try to wipe the sand from his face.

The top of the tower exploded. Tai stared at it for a moment, trying to figure out what happened.

"You do that?" asked Matt.

Tai started to run to the tower. A pink dragon was flying from it. Kari's Digimon! She was being followed by TK's Digimon. He could see them together on Magnadramon's back!

"Kari!" Tai cried out as he ran through the sand.

Kari practically fell off of Magnadramon's back in her haste to get to her brother. She fell into Tai's arms. "Tai! I'm so sorry1 I almost blew up TK!" she cried as she sobbed into Tai's chest.

"TK, huh?" He shrugged his shoulders and made an indifferent sound. Kari laughed through her tears and Tai gave a wink at TK.

"Thank you," he then said seriously to TK.

TK gave him a sad smile as he watched the two. At least their family could be back together . . . not that his family was together to begin with, but the thought of going home without Matt made him feel empty.

The others ran up to them, giving Kari hugs and TK pats on the back, but TK wasn't really paying attention.

"So . . ." said Davis, getting TK's attention. "Good job, Blondie," he said. "Did you kiss her?"

"No, I didn't kiss her, Davis!" TK said, annoyed.

Davis stared at TK for a moment. "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!?"

"What?"

"I've already kissed Kari. At the dance, remember? You had the perfect opportunity when you were rescuing her!"

"Well maybe I was too busy from trying to stay alive!"

"You're so dumb," Davis said and started to walk away.

"_I'm_ dumb!?" TK cried after him, but Davis was no longer listening. TK moved away from the crowd of people so that he could breathe. Everyone was so happy, and they were preparing to go home, but TK didn't want to go home. Not without Matt. He couldn't face his parents. This wasn't like telling his mom that Matt was going to college. He suddenly wished that was the problem and would give anything to watch his brother and his mother fighting. He never wished that before, but that was so much better than him being gone forever.

"You know, you're sucking the fun out this reunion, and you look like you're about to cry. Grow up; you're embarrassing me!"

"Shut up, Matt!" TK said, which was his usual retort when Matt was making fun of him for crying. It was so natural that it didn't occur to him that Matt shouldn't be standing right behind him.

He whipped around in shock. Matt grinned at him. "Seriously, how old are you? Five?"

Then TK did start to cry and flung his arms around Matt's waist.

"Aw, TK . . . hugging? Come on, I'm all dirty and gross. Get off of me."

"I'm telling Mom!" TK sobbed.

"Telling Mom what!?"

"That you don't want to go to collage. She's got to know sometime and I'm telling her as soon as I get the chance!"

Matt took TK by the shoulders and looked him in the face. "You are _not_ telling Mom!" he cried. "I rather you tell her I was impaled by a Digimon and then my data was found in Izzy's trash!"

TK started laughing, or crying. Matt couldn't really tell, but whatever it was made TK cough and choke. He pressed TK's face against his chest again to let him get it out of his system. "Calm down, ok? Everything's fine . . . and there no need to tell Mom about college," he said, rubbing TK's back.

TK made a noise in answer.

Matt decided he'll bribe TK later, when he was calmer. How to bribe TK . . .

* * *

They were all back at the camp. The summer wasn't over yet, so they decided to spend the rest of it together. The Digimon decided to stay as well. At least till the summer was over. 

"We're going to play soccer," declared Tai, dropping the ball in front of the group.

"Since when was this decided?" asked Matt.

"Since I decided it."

"Of course _you_ picked soccer. You know you'll win!"

"I did not pick it for that reason . . . I picked it because I thought everyone would have a fun time playing it. Now, since I'm team captain at school, I should be team captain for my team. I'll be nice and let you be the other captain, Matt."

"It doesn't really matter, because you know I suck at soccer!"

"I'll pick two, and you pick two. Ken and Davis."

"Yes!" cried out Davis as he ran behind Tai.

"You can't do that," said Matt.

"Why not?"

"Because everyone that can play soccer is already on your team! It's unfair advantage."

"Now . . . are you saying that everybody else can't play soccer? Are they incapable, Matt?"

"Fine, I'll pick Izzy . . . and Sora," he said with a sly smile.

"No!" cried out Tai.

"What now?" asked Matt. "You have a problem with Sora being on my team?"

"Yeah, Tai?" asked Sora. "What's the matter?"

"Can't you see what he's doing? He's trying to claim you as his, by putting you on his team!"

"What am I, a thing? I'm not anyone's," said Sora, glaring at Tai.

"Exactly," agreed Tai nervously. "That's why Matt's a horrible person."

Sora changed her glare to Matt. "What?!" cried out Matt. "I picked Sora because she's played soccer before!"

"That's ok Tai," said Davis. "We'll still win. Pick Yolei."

"Is she any good in soccer?" asked Tai.

"No, I'm pretty sure she sucks. But she makes up with it by being more of a man than a girl." Yolei grabbed Davis into a headlock.

As they played, the game became more like football, as the two teams tackled each other, cheated and broke all the rules. The Digimon didn't know how to play to begin with, so it was just a chaotic mass of laughter.

* * *

The only people not participating were TK, Patamon, Gatamon and Kari. Kari was sitting at the quiet part of the lake, Gatamon swatting playfully at the fish in the water. Kari sighed softly as she watched her. 

"Hey," said TK sitting next to her. Patamon flew off with Gatamon and they talked together some little ways off.

"Hey," Kari answered miserably.

"You don't want to play soccer with the others?"

"No . . . it's a little loud. I'm kind of tired." They could hear the commotion from where they were sitting.

"Guys . . . !" they could hear Joe say. "You can't tackle in soccer! Yolei, Davis is on _your _team!"

"Calm down, Joe. I'm sure you'd like to tackle Mimi, just like how she tackled you back at the Dark Ocean," said Tai teasingly

"W-what?!" sputtered Joe. "How do you even know that!?"

"Davis told me."

"Yeah . . . I found it gross . . . so I think about it a lot. So I was bound to tell someone."

"Joe and Mimi . . . kissing underneath the waves," Tai sang. "Ow! Joe kicked me!" Tai whined.

"I-I meant to kick the ball!" Joe said in a panic.

"Hear that?"said Matt. "He meant to kick you in the balls, Tai."

"The soccer ball!"

"Go Joe," laughed Sora.

Mimi gasped. "Go and Joe rhyme!"

"I know," said Sora.

"That rhymes, too! I know . . . Joe will go . . . with the flow!"

"That's great, Mimi . . ."

"Yep," said TK, turning to Kari. "That sounds like our gang."

"Yeah . . ." Kari said, feeling glad that TK was there. She didn't like being completely alone. This was nice.

"You ok?" asked TK.

Kari laid her hand on top of TK's. "Yeah, I'm ok now." She rested her head on TK's shoulder. "I'm still a little shaken up with this whole Digimon Queen thing. I thought it was all over, you know? I wonder if it's all going to happen again."

"Hey, if this whole episode happens _again_, I'll get you out. I can protect you, Kari. I told you that before, remember?"

Kari laughed. "You said you'd protect me from Tai, once he found out that Matt and Sora were coming."

"It doesn't matter what it's from," TK said, watching the water. They were silent for a while and TK didn't dare say anything. He just let Kari rest her head on his shoulder. He would stay there as long as she needed him to.

"TK?" Kari said after some time. She lifted her head from his shoulder. "Thank you," she whispered. "For everything."

TK tried to think of what to say back. 'You're welcome' just didn't feel right. After some time, TK said "Sure," lamely, realizing it took too long for him to answer.

Kari would look at his face, then turn her gaze away nervously, then look at him again. TK stared patiently at her, waiting for her to say what she needed to say.

Then Kari closed her eyes and pressed her lips softly against his.

Suddenly, Davis cried out from farther away, "The damn squirrel is back!"

THE END

An: Did you see that? THE END! it's right there! Now that this story's finished . . . I'd like to thank a few people that really deserve it. One, MY COUSIN, bla8. She's the only reason why this thing is finished. I beleived I said, I wasn't going to attempt to finish this when I started. I forgot about it for over half a year. then when I remebered it, I had named the file XX and didn't remember . . . so I thought I deleted it. But she forced me to work on it. And I went to her everytime I had writers block. Two, My friend Forestwater, who listened to me-though she could probably care less about Digimon-but did so, because she loves me. 3, my brother, who I also talked to when I had writers block . .though he was less nice about it . . .he thought of some of the more funnier parts for me. 4, Digi-Girl101 because she was like one of my first reveiwers and she's been with me to the end. She may only say one or two sentences in her review, but man, I've been working on this for over a year and she's STILL reading it. And 5, GOD for creating squirrels. I would never had gone past chapter three with out them.

Two things that I want to point out so people don't bite my head off for . . . what happened to the servents? I don't know, I'm hoping they died. Stupid whiny creatures. But now that they'll free from their master maybe they can be happy forever more. And . . . who does Sora get with. Ha . . .haha. I remember back . . . when I was stressing over the fact that I didn't have an ending . .. or a plot (totally made this up as I went along. Kinda like Tai . . .haha.) That I did not know. Then I realized this stoy is about being friends, NOT RELATIONSHIPS SPILTING THEM UP! So . . . WEEE! KNOW ONE KNOWS! BECAUSE IT DOESN'T MATTER!

. . . Please don't hurt me now . ..

I think that's it. My friend suggested me making a blooper chapter. Since I made this as I went along, there were many different directions this story could have gone into, but if it did . . . bad things would have happened . . . Yeah . . . though I'm not really sure I'll do that or not, because I'm lazy. Yep. But I finished this, so I can't be that lazy. I will say good by to you now then. .. Goodby

Man, I just wrote all that only to find that I was logged on as my brother. . . .hahahAHAHAH!


End file.
